He may have won it three out of the last four years, but Mark Condren is anything but blasé about scooping the AIB Photojournalist of the Year Award once again.

The Irish Independent photographer, who's from Castletownroche but now resides in Dublin, says "it's brilliant, I still get that shock when my name is announced, it's because the standard is so high and it's such a massive competition."

Judges select what they consider to be the best entries from among two and a half thousand entrants. All the more reason why Mark should be chuffed with the judge's remarks that his work stood out for its great composition and mastery with a set of images "that were difficult to fault but easy to feel envious of."

Mark won the competition before in 2010 and 2011 and came second last year. In addition to the overall award, he took first prize in the reportage section of the competition for his photo essay capturing the repatriation to Romania of the remains of murdered teenager Mariora Rostas. He says it was an emotional one to shoot.

The strongest image he produced he believes is the photo of the disgraced businessman Sean Quinn, pictured with a tear running down his face. Mark captured it at a support rally for the Quinn family in Cavan. It won him third place in the news section of the prestigious competition. In all, 12 of his images caught the eye of the judges. Mark appeared with his winning portfolio on The Late Late Show on Friday night where he was congratulated by host Ryan Tubridy.

A native of neighbouring Ballyhooly, Marc O'Sullivan, who has been a professional photographer based in Dublin for almost 20 years, was also amongst the winners on the night. Marc took three firsts, in the Nature and Environment, Arts and Entertainment and Daily Life categories. Marc said he was delighted to scoop the three awards.

He told The Avondhu this week about the image which sparked his interest in newspaper photography: "I remember when I was young seeing a picture on the front page of the Examiner, it was of an old man with his horse and cart, he used to come down from the mountains in all weathers with the cart loaded up with firewood and passed our home every day … here he was on the front page of a newspaper walking down the main street in Ballyhooly. I was soon borrowing my Dad's old Pentax camera and photographing Ballyhooly from every angle."

Congratulations to both elite photographers, you're certainly making your mark in the creative photographic world. The parish of Castletownroche and Ballyhooly can be justifiably proud of your achievements.

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