LEGENDARY photographer Robert Doisneau once said, chance is the one thing you can’t buy. You pay for it with time, not the wasting of time but the spending of time.

Mike Tipping has spent almost a quarter of a century with this newspaper constantly looking to capture those elusive moments of chance; the creative fraction of a second that makes the difference between a great picture and an also-ran.

"Without sounding pretentious I have always been heavily influenced by the great reportage photographers, Henri Cartier Bresson, Martin Parr and Bert Hardy," says Mike. "They were all great exponents of making the mundane interesting."

Which, he says, is the art of a being a regional press photographer.

"It's a different skills set to national newspapers, people skills especially. You wouldn't be very effective without them."

But technique is also crucial, as is a good eye and Mike has both in spades as his many awards testify.

He says he always looks for pictures that have impact and this one of the Royal Mail stamps printed to commemorate British millinery certainly has that.

What could have been a dull photo call needed a lift, so Mike asked four models to help out. The result was a picture that does exactly what it should do; make you stop and look.

Then there is his photo of Darren Gough, which is a great example of the 'decisive moment'

"He didn't know I was taking it," says Mike. "The official photo had just been taken and I was some distance away. I had been focusing on Gough because he was star of the show, then he began larking around."

Many would have missed it, but this picture is the result of reactions that win awards.

So is the evocative study of Archbishop Tutu.

"Strangely enough people always say oh yes it's the Archbishop, meaning Dr Sentamu. Then they look again and realise it's Desmond Tutu. I think this sums up his character; he's a good man, you can see it in his eyes."

Finally, Mike has chosen a picture taken when Royal Ascot came to York in 2005.

"The Queen just appears to be milling about on her own," he says. "I quite like the idea of a face in the crowd who just happens to be the most famous woman in the world.

"It's been tough picking six photographs. I would probably choose a different six tomorrow, because they are from 25 years work."

Then there are those whose subjects would be too heavy for a retrospective. Everyone here is sad to see Mike leave, but he's off to teach his skills to a new generation of photographers and we wish him well.

So what will you miss Mike?

"The constant variety. In this job you never know what's around the corner and I'll also miss meeting people, whether famous or unfamous, criminals, the Royal Family and everything in between."