RAF photographic winners

There was a marked Lincolnshire presence in the RAF’s Photographic Competition 2024 with Ben Webb’s photo (above and in full below) taking one of the top prizes.

The Visual Communicator based at Waddington won the RAF Personnel Photo of the Year award with The Last ride after having only joined the RAF five months earlier.

AS2 Webb is based captured the image of a RAF Falcons parachute display team member when they landed at Waddington in October.

The competition recognises the talent of photographers used throughout the service for stills and video images covering reconnaissance through to promotional content and the 11 judges had 1,000 entries to consider.

Ben chose to follow his passion for aviation photography by joining the RAF after visiting air shows around the UK and captured his Falcons image during a day of displays at Waddington.

“Luckily the Falcons came over, I quickly ran over and snapped the shot. My settings were not set to how I would like it, so I had about 15 images of the same shot, but only one came out sharp. I was very lucky with it.”

Andy Wheeler who works at RAF Cranwell was named Photographer of the Year after submitting a portfolio of six pictures including the black and white Cheers to the King below. The former cruise ship and wedding photographer has previously won the Personnel Category.

Images of the Red Arrows Aerobatic Team based at Raf Waddington took second place in the Photographic Section Portfolio.