PRINCE Charles beaming with pride and joy during a visit to Yorkshire the day after the birth of his grandson Prince George; a soldier embracing his son after returning from Afghanistan; on-loan striker (and former Minstermen regular) Richard Cresswell wheeling away in glee after scoring in a season-defining game for York City that saw them finally end a 16-match run without a win; and volunteer Roger Barker grinning from ear to ear while wreathed in smoke from the Sir Nigel Gresley.

These are among the images that, for our award-winning team of photographers, best sum up 2013.

We asked them to choose the favourite images they took during the year.

Those they selected may not necessarily be technically the best. But they are the images that meant most to them. And between them they capture the drama and the emotion that made up 2013…


• Martin Oates, above 

A Red Arrows display plane looking as though it is about to crash into the ruins of Scarborough Castle on Armed Forces Day. Actually, the aircraft was flying past well behind the castle, Martin says. He didn’t really have a long enough lens.

“But we used it right across the front page of the newspaper, and I got an amazing amount of feedback on Twitter.”
 

York Press:
• Nigel Holland 

Volunteer Roger Barker with the Sir Nigel Gresley during the reunion of Mallard and other A4 locomotives at the NRM. “Everything about it was just so natural,” Nigel says.

“There was such great character in his face. To me, he just looked as though he belonged in the age of steam.”

 

York Press:
• Dave Harrison 

Elvis Costello, on stage at the York Barbican with his ‘spectacular spinning songbook’ device that members of the audience spun to select the next song he’d play. Dave had only gone there to get a photo and then leave.

“But I just stayed on for one more, and then one more, until the end of the show. Amazing.”
 

York Press:
• Garry Atkinson 

Striker Richard Cresswell, who had returned on loan to the club he left in 1999, wheeling away in delight after scoring a goal that helped end York City’s 16-match run without a win. Cresswell fired in the second goal in the Minstermen’s 2-0 triumph at home to Plymouth on Easter Monday, one of four wins in five games that rescued Nigel Worthington’s side from relegation.

“You just got the feeling that their season was turning around, right there,” Garry says.

 

York Press:
• Frank Dwyer

Prince Charles, pictured during a visit to the East Yorkshire village of Bugthorpe with his wife the Duchess of Cornwall, on the day after the announcement of the birth of his grandson Prince George. “It was just the expression on his face,” says Frank.

“It was almost the first time he had been seen in public since the announcement. He was a happy grandfather.”

 

York Press:
• Mike Tipping

Two runners passing the finishing line of the Yorkshire Marathon. “I felt rather like a vulture, waiting on the finishing line for a picture that conveyed the emotions of runners as they crossed the line,” Mike says.

“This image summed it all up for me, as one runner comforts another who is visibly overcome by the situation.”

 

York Press:
• Anthony Chappel-Ross

Lt Colonel Colin Vaudin of 2 Signal Regiment embracing his son Nicholas, 12, when he and his men returned in May from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. “I think it was the picture I was most pleased with in the year,” Anthony says.

“If you don’t feel something looking at that picture… well, you can’t be human.”