A WORCESTERSHIRE photographer has snapped up a national advertising award in Birmingham.

The Best Photography award from Cream advertising is photographer Nic Gaunt's second award to date for his self-promotional calendar.

Now his pictures are receiving maximum exposure on display in Birmingham city centre, covering the side of the new Broadway Plaza.

The calendar, entitled Ink, also won a certificate of merit in the National Business Calendar Awards earlier this year, beating impressive competition from Pirelli tyres, Rolls Royce and British Airways.

Mr Gaunt, aged 31, of Stockton-on-Teme, opted to depict the versatility of ink in the winning images.

"It feels great to have won this award, not only from a photographic perspective, but also in light of the stiff competition from large advertising agencies," he said.

"I tried to make the calendar show how something as simple and everyday as ink can be used to create powerful images," he added.

Mr Gaunt has also recently completed his second calendar for next year, entitled Paper.

The new series of images compliment the Ink calendar, and they are being kept under wraps following huge demand from national companies, while a joint exhibition is planned for 2002.