AWARD-winning Oxford Mail photographer Jon Lewis was given his trophy this week after getting national recognition for his stunning snaps.

The veteran newspaper man – who has been at the paper for 22 years – beat hundreds of other staff members across the country working for Newsquest, our parent company, to the Excellence Award for Best Use of Photography.

His entries included a beautifully lit image of the solar eclipse last March over the Clarendon Building in Oxford, a picture of a rolled Ford Focus on the A44 lit by moonlight, children at North Leigh primary school pictured looking like zombies at the end of a first aid course and a hard-hitting portrait of burns victim Kizzy Brockall.

Mr Lewis was also last year nominated for best photographer at a daily newspaper at the prestigious Regional Press Awards.

He said: "In the course of the 20 years I have been here I’ve photographed everything from tortoise racing to F1; the ups, downs and ups again of Oxford United; pretty much every member of the Royal Family; and, more importantly, the great people of our great city.

"The photographs entered in the competition show some of the diversity of the stories published every day in our papers and websites."

Prior to joining the Mail, the 50-year-old served in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets for five years.

Having been inspired by his first camera – a Kodiak Brownie 127 – at the age of seven, he was always a keen photographer and after leaving the army was at the Banbury Guardian before becoming a trainee in 1994 at the Oxford Mail.

Newsquest Media Group chief executive Henry Faure Walker came to Mail offices at Newspaper House on Wednesday to present the award.