'The Day Vera came to town' - British Life Photography Awards, shortlisted entry

I was lucky enough to have been shortlisted in the very first 'British Life Photography Awards' competition, held during the final few months of 2014. 

I was photographing the arrival of the Canadian Lancaster to R.A.F. Coningsby in Lincolnshire last August, for a news agency . It was to be the start of a month's worth of flying activities, which would see the Canadian bomber and the Battle of Britain's Lancaster in the air together for the first time. Something that will never, 'likely' be repeated, a truly unique experience. There were many hundreds of spectators there, all ready to welcome the Canadian plane to the U.K, including a number of surviving, elderly veterans. I managed to capture this candid image of one such veteran, John Mitchell, as he sat beneath the hulking fuselage of the Canadian Lancaster, after it had landed and taxied in. Mr Mitchell was a squadron leader and pilot on Lancasters during the Second World War, stationed at Langar in Nottinghamshire. I caught him in a quiet moment of reflection, one, I feel, that sums up the mood of the day's events.   

'Vera' and John Mitchell