TWO former air traffic controllers with the RAF are now flying high in a new field after winning one of Europe's top awards.

Andy and Amy Turner, from Lower Walton, gave up a life with the RAF three years ago to take up wedding photography full-time and scooped top place at awards run by Europe's largest photographic society.

And they won an Apple MacBook lap top and Cintiq 21 monitor after beating 550 other entries with one print in the contest which was held in London last month.

It is the latest success for the couple who split the running of their business iMAG1NE between Warrington, where Amy was a former Bridgewater High School student, and northern Umbria in Italy where they are renovating a farmhouse.

Amy, aged 30, said they were delighted to win.

She added: "Our business is truly high-tech, we use four digital cameras on a wedding day and re-touch every single image in photoshop that we present to the bride and groom.

"Our style of photography is modern and vibrant and we have been recognised as serious new talent by some of the world's most renowned wedding photographers.

"We eat, sleep and breathe photography - our job is our passion and we feel exceptionally privileged to do the job that we do."

The winning picture was taken on September 13 last year in the Chiesa di Santa Costanza church in central Rome. The couple tying the knot were Matt and Denise Green from Birmingham.

And the couple themselves know all about weddings abroad after they married in Orvieto, Italy in June last year.

To find out more about their work click here