A LIVERPOOL-BORN Royal Navy seaman is celebrating after he collected one of the service’s top photography awards.

His moody picture of flagship vessel HMS Ark Royal against the Scottish highlands scooped Maritime Image of the Year.

Leading Airman Gregg Macready, from Walton, took the picture while based on the aircraft carrier.

LA Macready will add the award to the Maritime Air Prize that he won last year for a picture of a Merlin Helicopter on-board Ark Royal.

LA Macready, 40, told the Daily Post: "It is fantastic to get the recognition. Winning prizes in two consecutive years, doing a job I love – it’s an incredible feeling."

Describing how he got the pictures, he continued: "The ship was going through the Strait of Mull and our skipper just wanted pictures of Ark Royal, so he sent me out in the sea boat and it was a case of getting what I could. And that was one of the shots that I got. You always try to get the best you can with the elements working for you as well."

The awards were judged by Fleet Street picture editors and a former Royal Navy photographer.

LA Macready joined the Royal Navy in 1990 and initially trained and as an electronic warfare engineer, serving on several warships.

But, around five years ago, he changed tack and qualified as a photographer and image analyst at the Defence School of Photography in RAF Cosford.

He joined the Fleet Regional Photographic Unit in Portsmouth and has since undertaken various photographic tasks taking him around the world, including stays in the USA, Caribbean, Gulf, Falklands, South Georgia and the Mediterranean.He added: "I’ve got to say the best place for photography is South Georgia. That’s the most picturesque area."