High Roller Winner Spotlight: Howard Bassant (January 2026)

By Keiran Wilkinson with contributions from Howard Bassant

One of the highlights of our COAP Online community calendar is the High Roller, our monthly competition where members share their best images based on a specific, challenging theme. These usually occur exclusively within our member community, but we believe that world-class photography deserves a broader audience. As an addition for 2026, we are sharing the winning shots from the community to showcase our members’ skills and creativity.

The January Winner: Howard Bassant

In our January competition, titled “Take Off!”, we challenged members to capture THAT moment. When brute force and aerodynamics turn a lump of metal into a flying object - with all the power, speed, spluff, burner, spray and action a photographer could ask for. Anticipating a take-off point is a skill in itself. How much fuel is on board? If it’s a show, what is the display profile? How strong is the wind? (…And in which direction?!). Once photographers have an idea of those, do they then take a rear shot after lift-off, or a shot as the aircraft comes towards them during lift-off? Then there’s the settings choice too. So many factors and so satisfying to nail. We wanted to see photos that were as dynamic as possible.

After the community cast their votes in the January competition, one image stood out from the rest. We are delighted to announce that Howard Bassant is the January High Roller winner! Howard's shot of the B1 at RAF Fairford really was the coming together of all of the factors above.

I asked Howard some questions about how he captured the winning image. Here is what he said.

This photo was taken at RAF Fairford at the crash gate near Dunfield. USAF B1's were on a bomber task force deployment. It was a typical murky November morning, and the weather helped so much on this occasion to create the fluff and vortices on the wings. The camera used was a Nikon D500, with a Sigma 150-600 lens. The settings for this picture were ISO 640, f/5.3, and 1/400sec. These deployments attract many photographers and spotters, so you should be prepared for an early start, but don't feel compelled to go where everyone else has congregated.

I tend not to review my photos using the camera's screen; I find you can't always tell if you've nailed it. I was very pleased with this one when I downloaded it to my home PC.

The best tips I can give anyone are to master your knowledge of shutter speed; it's amazing how the shutter speed can change an image (for better and for worse) and have the confidence to play around and try new settings. I'd also add practising your panning technique, which is critical for photographing moving subjects and a skill that comes with both practice and experience.

Congratulations again to Howard for a well-deserved win! If you'd like to see more of his images, you can find them at the links below.

https://www.flickr.com/people/howardbassant/

https://www.instagram.com/howardbassant