NO, THE camera hasn't lied. This image entitled Power Over God, is not the result of digital photo-manipulated jiggery-pokery.

It really is Drax Power Station in the distance beyond York Minster and what's more it may be a record.

Photographer Malcolm Tomlinson estimates the distance from the secret vantage point where he snapped this to the belching power station chimneys is 28 miles.

That easily beats what was thought to be the longest telescoped image on record - taken from Dover in 1943 by a Daily Express cameraman using a ten-ft long lens to pick out the German gun emplacements on the French coast 22 miles away.

This strange juxtaposition of landmarks is the result of the freakish view Malcolm had three years ago, a scene that took his breath away.

Ever since then he has made eight expeditions to the place which he will only identify as being 12 miles away from the Minster, and on each occasion he was frustrated by fading light or descending clouds.

But he kept going back because he wanted to prove the point that digital isn't always best.

Malcolm's business, Inventory Photographic, based at his home in Eastholme Drive, Rawcliffe, testifies to that. His careful photographs of antiques, jewellery and other valuables for valuation purposes would never be accepted by an insurance company if the negatives were not available to prove that a single diamond has not been cleverly tweaked into a much more valuable cluster.

Then one evening last month at 6.40pm conditions were perfect, and he fired off 24 shots using his 23-year-old Nikon FE with - photographic buffs please note - 200 ASA Kodak gold colour film and armed with a 300 mm f/4.5 Nikkor lens extended by two teleconverters.

The focal length ended up at 1,200mm bringing the images 24 times closer, but compressed in a way that ballooned Drax and dwarfed the Minster.

Malcolm, aged 57, said: "I'm determined not to give the spot away because I would love to be able to stoke up enough interest in order to sell the prints and I don't want rivals. Besides, I'm still not satisfied. I'm sure I can improve on the image. If it is windy and you're standing on a slope, the slightest vibration can affect the result over 28 miles"

Updated: 09:24 Tuesday, September 24, 2002