You see photos of Vietnam veterans coming out of the jungle and his eyes drew me in,” said SSgt Hughes. His gritty close-up portrait of exhausted soldier Sergeant Richie Richardson on exercise speaks volumes: He was inspired to take up photography after a posting to Northern Ireland in 1991, when his passion spiralled. Staff Sergeant John Hughes was named Amateur Photographer of the Year for his portfolio of six images taken on an exercise in Germany. Some photos work and some don’t,” said Major Crawford. I must have taken 150 images and blasted away. Your eye is drawn to a lone Household Cavalry soldier riding an immaculate ebony horse at the foot of the photograph with a vast backdrop of the parade ground behind the horseman: In contrast to combat chaos, Major Richard Crawford was honoured for his ‘Trooping the Colour’ shot taken during the Colonel’s Review in June, winning the category of Amateur Best Non-Operational Image. The cultural contrast is heightened when, out of the blue, the slow journey is interrupted by gunfire. His stunning two-minute footage documented life behind the wheel in an Army convoy slowly snaking through the desert terrain past waterways, set to a techno soundtrack. Video footage was honoured with its own categories and Major Tim Symonds won an award for Best Operational Video depicting life on combat logistic patrols in Afghanistan, delivering supplies across Helmand. The great thing about the Army is that you go to places that are so unusual to most people that the pictures just take themselves. On my first tour, I thought there are some crazy things going on here, I really need to take some photos, so I bought a camera and started then. It was a cold sunny day and as I looked out I realised it was an amazing view, so I whipped my camera out.Ī veteran of two Afghan tours, Lieutenant Colonel Jordan said: He described his monochrome shot taken in transit between Camp Bastion and Kandahar:

Lieutenant Colonel Simon Jordan RLC, from HQ Land Forces, was runner-up in the amateur category for Best Operational Image for his neatly-titled ‘Lynx Effect’ capturing a dramatic birds-eye view from inside a cramped Lynx helicopter, shot on Boxing Day 2009. Other images feature an Afghan tribal elder wheeling his bicycle through the dusty streets of Nad ‘Ali and a blind tribal elder with his young grandson, their closeness palpable. He caught my eye so I took a quick portrait, but in Afghanistan people love their pictures being taken and collared me every two seconds,” smiled Corporal Kendall. His winning portfolio features an arresting portrait of a blue-eyed Afghan policeman graduating from the Helmand Police Training Centre in Lashkar Gah:

An Afghan policeman on the day of his graduation from the Helmand Police Training Centre in Lashkar Gah Ĭorporal Kendall’s awards are an astonishing achievement given that he only graduated from photography training in April 2010.

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