A CUTE little dog scampering over the petrified prehistoric forest on Redcar beach is the subject of the winning photograph in The Northern Echo’s Enjoy Tees Valley in the Spring competition.

It wins photographer Rachel Hughes, a nurse from Darlington, an overnight stay at five-star Rockliffe Hall, in Hurworth – even though she only took the picture on her phone.

The Northern Echo:

WINNER: Rachel Hughes at Rockliffe Hall, Hurworth

“I love taking pictures but I don’t have a camera,” said Rachel, who is expecting her first child in January. “I take whatever I fancy when I’m out and about. The dog was with an older man and it was so white, as if it had just been washed, and the beach looked as if it was filthy.

“The dog was a little white snowball and it stood against the black forest.”

The Echo ran the competition with the Tees Valley Combined Authority, which is promoting tourism in the area by using the “enjoy” tagline. At the start of spring, large crowds flocked to Redcar beach where unusually low sands had exposed the 7,000-year-old remains of a petrified forest. – and Rachel’s little dog is certainly enjoying scrabbling among them.

The Northern Echo’s next photographic competition is a challenge for photographers to come up with an image that could grace the front page of an historic edition of the paper, which is due to be published in November to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

We want a very special picture which captures the essence of remembrance.

We are particularly thinking of a war memorial or sculpture caught in an amazing light or at a certain time of day, or time of year – several war memorials have banks of trees behind them that look stunning in the autumn sun as the leaves change colour.

It could be a poignant detail from a memorial or a headstone or a service – ideally located within The Northern Echo’s area – or it could be a panorama of, say, Tommy at Seaham Harbour with a dramatic sun behind him.

Brilliant portrait pictures are very welcome, but we would love to receive landscape entries that would enable us to wrap the image around the front and back pages of the paper. This means the main focal point of the picture needs to be on the right, and it needs space to breathe so a headline and other text can be added.

  • The winner will receive a framed copy of the historic edition with their image on the front and £50 Love2shop vouchers.
  • Entries may be uploaded at northernecho.co.uk/ww1-photo, and the closing date is October 15.