A photo taken by a visitor to Dunstanburgh Castle has been chosen as the front cover image for next year’s Northumberland Coast Visitor Guide.
Andy Freeman from Cheshire snapped a shot of his son, Ben, looking out from the ruined castle. The image was chosen as the winner of the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership’s photographic competition and will feature on the cover of forty-thousand visitor guides next summer.
Andy said “The photograph was taken during our visit to Dunstanburgh Castle. My son loved the castle and was taking in the view of the Lilburn Tower when I asked him to stand still so that the top of the tower looked like a crown on his head, and he was a king surveying his land below. I thought that the shot conveyed how much fun kids can have in the castles around Northumberland whilst, hopefully, learning something too”
Chair of the AONB Partnership, Cllr John Woodman and Andy Craig, a photographer from Christon Bank, were the competition judges. Explaining why the image caught his eye Cllr Woodman said “This is such a fun shot, it portrays what the visitor guide is all about - telling people what there is to see, do and learn about on the Northumberland coast. Judging was very difficult; the standard of entries was very high. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter”.
Andy was delighted to have won the competition and said “This is fantastic news for me because I have just started a Higher National Diploma in photography so that I can make a mid-life career change. This is my first publicly published photo so will always have pride of place in my portfolio".
As well as having his image on the front cover, Andy will join Andy Craig on a half-day Photo-trail along the coast as part of his prize.
The Northumberland Coast Visitor Guide provides information to visitors about the landscape, history, wildlife and villages of the coast as well lots of things for visitors to do and see during their stay. The guide will be published next March, businesses wishing to advertise in the guide should contact Mike Jones at PDP on 01665 713899 or email [email protected]
The judges also highly commended three other entries:
Two Arctic terns on Inner Farne by Amy Nathan from Sheffield
The Aurora Borealis over Bamburgh Lighthouse by Dru Dodd from Warkworth and
Holy Island Causeway by Norma McKellar from Benton in North Tyneside