Ani Snaps Up Coveted Photography Prize
Rugby photographer Ani Evans who is based at Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre has gained international recognition by winning a significant award with the Guild of Professional Photographers.
The Guild is the highly-regarded national photographic body whose members are dedicated to enhancing their skills in the art, craft and profession of photography. It runs an Image of the Month competition and received around 13,000 entries during 2018, from photographers in the UK and overseas. Each image is scored and the scores from the year are then totalled to determine who wins one of the Guild’s Top 10 Photographer awards.
This is clearly a very demanding year long process. Ani Evans was honoured to become a Top 10 Photographer of the year (placed 3rd) in the Wedding Genre – a remarkable achievement when one considers the number and standard of the entries.
The Award was presented at the Guild’s Award night at Crewe Hall (a stunning Jacobean mansion in Cheshire). Not only that but Ani had one of her wedding images chosen as one of only ten for the Guild's Image of the Year competition too). Lesley Thirsk, Director of the Guild, said “I’m both proud and delighted that Ani has achieved the recognition after 12 months of submitting the highest quality images.
“The Guild has very demanding standards when judging photographic competitions. The judging is undertaken by a panel of internationally recognised experts from a variety of photographic backgrounds, so Ani, quite rightly, should be delighted with her extraordinary achievement.”Find out more about the Guild of Photographers at www.photoguild.co.uk, and more about Ani at www.anievansphotography.co.uk
Ani was quick to pay tribute to staff at the Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre, where her business is based and which has been her base as she has developed the business over the years. She said:
"We had been running our business from home for almost two years and then decided that it might benefit us to try and find premises. I was extremely anxious about doing this as we were still in our infancy and I was concerned about being tied into a lease for a long period of time. We came across the Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre in Rugby and it was the perfect solution for us. It gave us the space that we needed along with the support of the team who ran the centre.
“We took a small to medium sized unit on and it soon became apparent that our clients loved the fact that they could come and see us in a professional environment and it gave them added confidence in us.
“We had to write a business plan when we applied to take on the unit and we smashed that out of the park in the first 12 months and we have gone from strength to strength since then. We outgrew our first unit so took on a larger one so that we could do more studio work. The business centres are a fantastic way of growing your business with less of the risks that are normally involved in taking a business you operate from home into commercial premises."
Anyone interested in finding space at one of the County Council's business centres should call 02476 796 400 or email eliotpark@warwickshire.gov.uk.