FIRST ScotRail train cleaner Mark Graham, from Johnstone, has snapped up the First ScotRail Employee Photographer of the Year award.

The modest amateur photographer beat off stiff competition from five other shortlisted colleagues from across the country with his dramatic shot of a youth being swept from his feet by a wave in Tenerife.

The accolade came at First ScotRail’s Press Photography Awards, held at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library. Mark was presented with the trophy and a £250 cheque by Stewart Stevenson MSP, minister for transport, infrastructure and climate change, along with a photographic assignment with a national newspaper.

Chair of the judging panel Ken Lennox, a former picture editor of The Sun newspaper, described Mark’s submission as “one that captures a very rare moment in time and conveys a huge sense of action”.

Highly commended in the category were First ScotRail colleagues Sian Broderick from Banffshire and William Kingsbury from Lossiemouth.

Regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of Scotland’s press photography community, the Press Photog-raphy Awards attracted a record number of almost 3,200 images, with 42 photographers and nine magazines and newspapers shortlisted across its 16 award categories.