SHE certainly proved to be a snap above the rest.

Daily Echo reader Hazel Allen is celebrating after winning our autumn photographic competition.

The 79-year-old great-grandmother and her husband George, 76, snapped some pictures while at Exbury Gardens in the New Forest last year.

Judges at the Daily Echo voted Hazel's picture the best as it captured the colourful palette of amber, bronze and gold of an idyllic English autumn.

Now the lucky couple have been awarded a pair of passes to enjoy the New Forest gardens all year round.

Hazel, of Fair View Drive, Hythe, said; "It's great news winning the passes as we go there quite regularly. We haven't entered a competition like this before. We took the pictures and thought they were quite good and then saw the competition in the Daily Echo so we thought we would go for it. It was a bit of a shock winning as we don't win things very often."