A BUDDING photographer from Weymouth took the top place in a Dorset-wide competition.

This beautiful shot of the Milky Way at Durdle Door was taken by Ryan Carpenter, a media technician at All Saints School, and was named as the winning photograph in a competition held by I J Brown Opticians.

The opticians, which are based in Bridport, Dorchester, Swanage and Weymouth, launched a competition asking photographers to send in their ‘best vision of 2014’.

Ryan’s photo was hand-picked as the winner and placed alongside 11 others to form I J Brown’s 2015 calendar.

Each photographer received five copies of the calendar and, as the overall winner, Ryan was also awarded with the prize of an iPad Mini.

He said: “Being announced as the winner was a fantastic surprise.

“Even more so as it was the first time I had ever tried to take a photo of the Milky Way at Durdle Door.” He captured the photo using a Canon 60D camera at 1.30am in the morning. Ryan had set out at 9.30pm but needed to wait for a fire to die out on the beach before the conditions were suitable for him to capture the scene.

Paul Wallis, optometrist and partner of I J Brown Opticians, said: “I would like to thank all of those that took the time to enter our competition. “We were amazed at the variety we received – there were really were some great images,” he added.

“We hope to run a similar competition in 2015.”