Owen Humphreys' 30 years photographing the North East and Cumbria

Owen Humphreys' phone has been on 24 hours a day for the past 30 years. "I could be asleep in the middle of the night and something might have happened," he says. "As soon as we get the phone call about these disasters or events, we basically head straight out there." He is in his 30th year as PA Media's news photographer in the north-east of England and Cumbria. Formerly known as the Press Association (PA), its photos are shared to outlets around the world, and is often the first the public gets to see of the magnificent highs and terrible lows of major news events. Here are just some of the memorable stories he has worked on. Humphreys had been part of the Angel of the North's story "from the very start". "It was just incredible to see from it being in pieces on the floor in the factory [in Hartlepool], to actually being erected in Gateshead," he says. The 66ft (20m) tall landmark was built on the site of a former coal mine in 1998, during his first few years at PA. The main thing that has changed since then is the move from film to digital cameras, he says. "It was a lot more difficult," Humphreys says. Film cameras used light to capture images, rather than a digital sensor. "Yo