All lifeboat stations are equipped with digital waterproof Pentax cameras to help the crew take real-time, high quality images of their lifesaving activities.

RNLI lifeguard units also have access to the cameras. The RNLI Pentax Photographer of the year competition was developed to help document the work of the RNLI using that equipment.

Bobby Renaud, an area lifeguard manager from Cornwall, is the winner of 2007’s competition with his image of a lifeguard in training.

Eoin Ryan’s shot of a Coast Guard helicopter winchman on exercise with the lifeboat crew from Baltimore, was judged the best photograph taken by an all-weather lifeboat crew member.

The inshore lifeboat crew member category winner is Antony Peters from Rye Harbour, for his picture of a foggy fishing boat rescue.

The best photograph of an RNLI rescue came from Rusty Marshall, a member of the West Mersea inshore lifeboat crew. One of his crew mates is pictured attaching a towline to a grounded yacht in rough seas.

Sheelagh Broderick, also from Baltimore, took the best photograph by a volunteer shore helper: a dramatic shot of the station’s Tyne class lifeboat launching on an inhospitable day.

See all of these and the runners up at rnli.org.uk/photooftheyear.