Stunning images of Plymouth’s sailors and Royal Marines in action around the globe have earned the city’s photographers their profession’s top prize.
For the second time in three years, the small team of Royal Navy photographers based at HMS Drake have collected the Peregrine Trophy – the long-standing and highly-coveted award recognising the finest work by camera professionals in a Naval base, naval air station or Royal Marines unit.
To crown the achievement, the four photographers were awarded the prize for best portfolio of Royal Marines’ imagery – the Commandant General’s award.
The Peregrine Trophy awards recognise the skill, professionalism and dedication of the small group of specialists – who join the Navy in other trades, including Royal Marines commandos, but chose to re-train as full-time photographers/camera operators.
Over the past 12 months, Royal Navy photographers have captured the activities and actions of sailors and Royal Marines from the Arctic to both sides of the Pacific, as well as the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Black Sea and the Gulf.
And at home they have recorded the involvement of the Service’s key national events such as the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh and State ceremonies, as well as Royal visits, emotional homecomings, support to civilian agencies dealing with the Covid pandemic and everyday activities from training to major exercises.
A spread of six images – from F-35 stealth fighters kicking up spray on the deck of aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to submariners bringing veteran submarine HMS Trenchant alongside in Devonport for the final time – sealed the Peregrine Trophy victory.
The four-strong team in Drake – Petty Officer (Photographer) Alex Ceolin and Leading Photographers Phil Bloor, Robert Oates and Mark Johnson – draw on ten years’ experience as Navy photographers.
“This is our second Peregrine Trophy in three years and an amazing achievement by the whole team here,” said Petty Officer Ceolin.
“We are all extremely proud to have won both the Peregrine Trophy and Commandant General Royal Marines’ Award.
“Every member of the team here contributed towards both winning portfolios. In Plymouth, we have a great working environment and we all help each other out.”
Leading Photographer Johnson, a former Royal Marine, added:
“The working environment we have is brilliant and I think it really reflects in our work. It’s been a difficult time with the pandemic, so we’re absolutely thrilled to win the Peregrine Trophy.”
Petty Officer Ceolin, who joined the Navy seven years ago as a communications specialist before switching to photography in 2018, also won an individual award chosen by the public for a stunning silhouette of patrol ship HMS Tamar at sunset.
“I’d captured some really nice imagery and then, all of sudden, loads of dolphins started to swim up to the boats we were in,” said Alex, who lives in Colchester with her partner Penny.
“So I directed the boat’s coxswain to manoeuvre to where I wanted and waited for the dolphins to appear so I could capture them and the ship in the same shot.
“It took a while because you can’t control wildlife but I managed to capture the money shot – definitely one of my highlights as a Navy photographer.”
In her three years behind the lens, she’s travelled to Japan, the Mediterranean, across Europe and around the UK on half a dozen warships performing a myriad different missions and tasks.
“I’ve had many fantastic opportunities to capture imagery, imagery which has since circulated on many platforms for which I’m very grateful. I’ve also had the amazing opportunity of meeting and photographing numerous members of the Royal Family and visited fantastic places like Tokyo.”
The awards date back 60 years, taking their name from the then Royal Naval Air Station at Ford in Sussex, HMS Peregrine (today the site of the open prison).
The primary purpose is to encourage the production of eye-catching, powerful imagery and video that can be used in the media to demonstrate the Royal Navy and Royal Marines operations.
