A FORMER REME soldier has won first prize in the video category of an Army photographic competition, with a video about caving in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sergeant Russ Nolan, 38, a professional Army photographer with the Royal Logistic Corps, is now based at the Fleet Regional Photographic Unit (East) in Portsmouth. His parents live in Bordon.

Sgt Nolan said: “It’s nice to win the video category because you put a lot of hard work into the videos produced over the year.”

The video was part of adventurous training by regular and reservist soldiers.

Former REME tank mechanic Russ, who has been in the photographic trade for 11 years, said: “Sgt Gary Kendall and I had been doing various videos for adventurous training and they gave us a list of activities they wanted covering.

“One of the things we liked about it was its complexity to film,” added Russ, who has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. “It was filmed over three days and we had the cavers stopping and doing things over again to make sure we got all the best clips and all the best angles.

“Location also helps. When we’ve got guys abseiling, in a massive open crevice 40 or 50 metres down, into a cave is always a good opener. It was actually filmed in three different caves and then cut together to feel like one.

“We had to do a day’s roping and rigging training - because at all the caves we were going into there was an element of having to clip on to ropes and abseil down in the darkness.”

They also had to climb ropes. “I think what people associate with it is how it makes them feel if they were there in that tight space and in the darkness. It could be quite emotional.”

Russ now lives in Exmouth, Devon, with his wife and two daughters. He spent 10 years as a REME tank mechanic before changing trades in 2005. He became an electronic-news gathering operator in 2008 in Afghanistan. “I’ve never looked back,” he said.

Winners were announced last Wednesday at a ceremony at the Imperial War Museum in London.