RAF PR Image of the Year
The Royal Air Force currently has approximately 180 trained photographers all of whom have undertaken a 28 week training course at the Defence School of Photography at Cosford, which provides them with the skill and expertise to gain an NVQ Level 3 standard in Photography.
Each of these men and women have superb technical ability and take great pride in their role, striving to attain the highest standards of work in areas as diverse as aerial reconnaissance, portraiture, video, digital imagery, and ceremonial as well as completing tasks in support of the police, post crash management, engineering, medical and dental branches. The Royal Air Force Photographer of the Year enables these individuals to showcase their work to their colleagues and to the public.
More than 1400 images were entered in the 2009 Competition which made the selection of winners extremely difficult. Judging was conducted by Mr Adam Sorenson, Daily Mirror Photographer, Mr Dennis Nicholls from Nikon UK and Mr Stan Stabler, a retired Royal Air Force photographer. All were unanimous in their appreciation of the very high standard, quality and diversity of work produced by both Service and civilian photographers.
The Royal Air Force "Photograph of the Year", the picture which best represents the image, reputation and profile of the Royal Air Force, was taken by Cpl Scott Robertson of the Mobile News Team, Headquarters Air Command. His photograph reflects the recent deployment of the Tornado GR4 in support of operations in Afghanistan.
"It's fantastic to win the most coveted award of the competition! It's not every day this happens but you aim for it every day. You want every photograph you take to be Photograph of the Year. It's good feedback for what we do at Headquarters Air Command as this is our bread and butter."
Presenter of the awards, Air Vice-Marshal Carl Dixon: "The imagery is inspirational. The RAF is a Service which is opportunity rich in potential and all areas of RAF life have been well represented.
They have clearly spotted the moment and grabbed it through their lenses - my message to them is "keep them coming" because photography is one of the most important ways of keeping today's RAF in the public eye."
