"It's tough to get in and be a member of PPSA. 

We (Illustrative Options) are the only members from Botswana. For membership, you have to submit a portfolio of your works (professional pictures) to them. We have been members.

We have been members for 15 years and in that time have won 14 awards for wildlife, corporate advertising and architecture," she said.

Duthie, who shot the award-winning picture, said that she had been commissioned to do an architectural photography by a construction company for its (the company) portfolio. She submitted the picture to the PPSA for the awards. It was a picture of the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS).

To shoot it, she lay down on the ground and pointed her camera upwards.

"When I shot the picture, the picture of the building influenced the composition. The BURS building is round and hollow when you go inside. I made sure the picture was sympathetic to the subject matter. As photographers we have the challenge of photographing a three-dimensional image on a two-dimensional plane.

So it's important to create depth and create perspective," she said.

As a rule in corporate photography, she said, most of the time they have to make sure that the picture tells the whole story. She says that one of the other daunting challenges of their work is aerial photography. It is expensive.

You have to do it right once, because you cannot go back and do it again, she said.

"Aviation fuel is expensive, so there is no room for errors here," she said.

She revealed that Illustrative Options was established in 1991 in Gaborone. It offers a whole range of photographic services to its clientele, mostly corporate organisations and government agencies.

"The main body of our work consists of commercial advertising and corporate publications.

We also operate a large photographic image stock library containing 50,000 photographs from southern and eastern Africa including Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

These stock images range from rural village life and traditional people to commerce, industry, agriculture, wildlife, landscapes, tourist attractions and fine art pictures," she said.