Veterans Day 2009

This isn't the best picture I ever took, but it sure is among the most meaningful. I spoke with Ms. McGreevy after I took this picture of her. I could not hold back my tears as she told me her story:

Kim McGreevy of Portsmouth takes a private moment to honor her father, a WWII veteran of the Army Air Corps. She and her father attended the Portsmouth Veterans Day ceremony every year together. He died last December, but she made it a point not to miss this year's ceremony in honor of him.
(Scott Yates/Portsmouth Herald)

Backstage Pass with Gnarlemagne

Backstage Pass is an occasional profile series, produced by Portsmouth Herald photojournalist Scott P. Yates, which features local and up-and-coming musicians and performers. Backstage Pass takes readers behind the scenes to see what the artists do before the on-stage show we see at our local performance venues. Here, the band Gnarlemagne practices in their Madbury, NH, home in October, 2009.

Gnarlemagne guitarist Stuart Dias
Photograph by Scott P. Yates

Blues on a Sunny Day

Artty Raynes performs a cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and other covers and original songs while busking in Market Square, Portsmouth, NH, on July 9, 2009.

Photograph by Scott P. Yates

'I Guess You Could Call That Jazz'

Shanti Beeman of Chicago plays a jazzy tune on his trumpet on a bench in Market Square on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009.

Photograph by Scott P. Yates
(Portsmouth Herald)

Great Bay Music Festival 2009

The second annual Great Bay Music Festival took place on September 18-20, 2009, at Back River Farm in Dover, NH. The festival was started in 2008 to provide great music, food fun and games to the people of the seacoast NH. The 80 acres of rolling hills, fields, woods and ponds that make up Back River Farm have been preserved in conservation by the Huggins family. One of our goals is to raise money to open a non-profit wilderness learning center. The Learning Center would provide local youth a chance to learn about the fragile ecosystems that make up much of the seacoast region. The shallow, warmer water on the nearby Great Bay is ideal for teaching outdoor activities. (www.greatbaymusicfestival.com)

'The wrong side of the tracks'

Photograph by Scott P. Yates

Marie Witham, 82, of Portsmouth, smiles as she walks from the post office to her home along Islington Street Thursday morning, Sept. 17, 2009. Witham was born in the city and grew up in the Strawbery Banke neighborhoods, back "when it was the wrong side of the tracks." She says her belief in "god and my happy outlook" keep her feeling young.

Carol Shea-Porter hosts a meeting on health care reform

Seacoast residents express their opinions on health care and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter's town hall-style forum on health care reform at the Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Building in Portsmouth on Saturday, August 29, 2009.