THEY are the much loved creatures of the Forest and now they’re the subject of an award winning picture.

Cathy Anning’s photograph of a young donkey peering down her lens has been chosen from hordes of images as the Daily Echo Camera Club winner.

Taken near the former First World War airfield at Stoney Cross, the snap – which received 81 per cent of the vote – was simply the result of a close-up encounter with mother and foal.

Cathy, 53, from Katherine Close in Totton, said: “I spend a lot of time at Stoney Cross. I was photographing the mum and baby and then the baby just came and wandered up to me. I did a couple of snaps and then it just wandered off again. It was lovely.”

Now Cathy, who works the twilight shift at Poundstretcher in Totton, will collect her Jessop’s prize of a canvas print of the photo, as well as a level one or two photographer course worth £120, where Jessops Academy experts will give her some tips on how to make the most of her natural talent.

And the mother of two, who worked for 27 years as a photographic printer before digital came in, said there was no need to buy expensive kit to get a winning shot.

The image of the donkey foal was taken with a Nikon Coolpix L830 which she used on the automatic setting.

After her dad bought her her first camera as a child, she has taken pictures everywhere she goes – and even worked as printer for a professional photographer in Zimbabwe, where she lived from 1987 to 1999.

When she returned she worked for Philip Dean in Cadnam before taking up the role at Poundland, where her shift offers her plenty of time to get out and about in her favourite spots around the Forest.

A passionate New Forest resident, Cathy spends a lot of her time photographing the areas’s various wildlife, but it’s the pigs and alpacas that are her favourites.

She said: “The alpacas are so gentle and beautiful and the pigs just make me laugh.”