Photography winner's 'total shock'

Gabrielle's photo was taken at Handley Down, near the Dorset/Wiltshire border

A teenager from Sixpenny Handley has been awarded the Young Landscape Photographer of the Year award in a national competition.

Gabrielle Barnes' photograph was one of over a thousand entries say competition organisers. Her photo depicts poppies and maize at sunset at Handley Down.

Her winning shot forms part of a new gallery on display at Moors Valley Country Park.

She described winning the prize as a 'total shock'.

Gabrielle, aged 17, said: "I was only 14 when I took the photograph for my GCSE portfolio.

"The photo really was a stroke of luck.

"I was out for a walk when I saw the low sun lighting up poppies like flames.

"It was such a striking image that I went back with the camera the next day and was lucky enough to capture a very special moment.

Gabrielle is 17 and studying at Totton college in Hampshire

"Dorset offers some really beautiful scenes to photographers.

"It's worth carrying a camera as you never know what you may stumble upon."

A strong Dorset connection

The Landscape Photograph of the Year competition has a strong connection with Dorset.

It was the original idea of Charlie Waite, a Dorset-based landscape photographer.

Since he launched the prize in 2007, it has become a well recognised national exhibition, and the entries also form a book, designed to help promote new photographers.

Graham Hobbs' Beech Avenue was highly commended

Other Dorset locations featured in the exhibition include Christchurch, Peveril Point, Kimmeridge and Weymouth.

A shot of Beech Avenue at Kingston Lacy won a 'highly commended' for photographer Graham Hobbs.

Another Dorset photographer, Mark Bauer, was also commended for his 'First Frost at Sturminster Newton' image.

The overall winner in the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition was 'Barney on a jetty in December' taken at Hove Beach, East Sussex by Gary Eastwood.

The exhibition is in the Visitor Centre at Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, at Ashley Heath, and is open between 9am and 4.30pm daily until 8 November.