A Ballito international celebrity and "high end" fashion and wedding photographer - whose work has been published around the world - has just become the only winner from Africa to feature in an international competition.
Margaret Tilling, 34, has been named one of the top 100 women photographers in the world, taking a first place award in the Women in Photography International 25th Anniversary competition in Los Angeles, United States, for a wedding photograph.
Hers was the only bridal shot to win a prize, she said yesterday.
Asked what made her photograph so special, she said it captured a moment in time and evoked an emotion.
She had planned to get the bride, Anthea Henderson, jumping for rose petals which would have looked great against the blue sky. But when the sky turned very dark, she substituted white confetti for the petals.
"I then converted some of the confetti to mercury using (the photography computer programe) Photoshop, which linked in with the 25th (silver) anniversary of the competition," she said. "I was so pleased to be the only winner from Africa and proud to do it for my country," she said.
Tilling - who has photographed such big names as Westlife, Christina Aguilera and Diana Ross - also received an honourable mention in the competition for another fashion photograph.
The top 100 pictures will now be published in a limited edition leather-bound book which will be given to the judges (including representatives of top art galleries around America and Oprah Winfrey's O magazine) museums and universities as well as the winners. Tilling, who used a Canon EOS 30 film camera for her winning shot, will also be receiving photographic equipment as part of her prize.
She has won several other photographic competitions, including International Bridal Photographer of the Year and a Fuji Professional Award.
Tilling began her career in Johannesburg and decided to move to KwaZulu-Natal where she saw a gap in the market for her state-of-the-art makeover studio.
She was the first photographer in South Africa to get the latest Hasselblad H2 with P25 Phase One digital back, a R300 000 camera that is used in the world's top assignments and fashion campaigns such as Dior and Calvin Klein.
"It's the Rolls Royce of cameras and produces the finest quality and resolution in the world," she said.