A HEART doctor who is an award winning photographer in his spare time is in the running for another accolade.

In his day-to-day life, Dr Sanjay Gupta, 42, is a consultant cardiologist at York Hospital, but in his own time is a keen photographer - a talent he developed at night school while learning advanced cardiac imaging at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.

He has won the prestigious National Geographic traveller photographer of the year accolade and in a year ago he was a finalist in the Wanderlust travel photographer of the year competition with his remarkable pictures of pilgrims at Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India.

Now he has been shortlisted again with eye catching images taken in his home country of Kenya of a Masai woman selling trinkets at the Diani beach resort.

The woman told Sanjay how Masai people were being evicted from their homes in Tanzania and Kenya as foreigners bought the land for ranches.

She had journeyed some 12 hours from her home to make money at the tourist resort.

Sanjay said: "I went with the idea of getting a good picture but the images become a lot more special when you learn the story behind it. In her face you can see a bitter sweetness which would not have become apparent had I not spoken to her."

Over the past year, Sanjay has also taken photographs in Vienna and of the mosques in Istanbul. Last year he spent five days at the Kumbh Mela Hindu festival, which was attended by 100 million people, taking photographs of the many individuals he met there, including many homeless people.

The father-of-two said he finds photography to be a rewarding creative outlet from his busy life in medicine.

"My profession is endless," he said, "The patients continue and the numbers increase. I'm stretched all the time. With photography I feel I can grow."

Sanjay's work is due to be shown at an exhibition at the Artco Gallery in Leeds and he will learn whether he has won the Wanderlust award at a ceremony at the end of January in Earls Court in London.