One day Joy Yammine was out in the car with her father, when it started to rain, hard.

The 13-year-old noticed two children standing beside the road, sharing a towel to try to shelter from the downpour.

She was impressed by how they were trying to help each other.

“I thought it was really cool to see that, and they were so lucky to have each other,” the Bermuda High School student said. “It was something you don’t see every day.”

Wanting to capture the moment, she grabbed her father’s mobile phone and snapped.

This month, her sharp eye and quick thinking won her best In show in the Reg Grundy Annual Youth Photography Competition and also first prize in the family photo category in the 11 to 14 age group.

The Bermuda High School student told The Royal Gazette she largely forgot about the photo after taking it, until friends started talking about the competition.

It was launched in 2019 in partnership with Joy Chambers Grundy and the National Museum of Bermuda, in memory of Dr Grundy, an Australian media icon, avid photographer and former resident of Bermuda.

The competition is open to all local photography enthusiasts, ages 7 to 18, and is designed to inspire the next generation of photographers and encourage an appreciation for Bermuda’s natural and cultural environment.

“My friends took part in the competition last year, but I don’t think I was ready for that yet,” Joy said. “Entering photo competitions is a new thing for me.”

Looking through all her photos the photo of the children in the rain jumped out at her.

“I think the scene I took looked better in person,” she said. “But I do think I captured it well.”

When she entered the competition, her younger brother, Joseph, 9, also decided to take part.

Joseph, a student at Mount St Agnes Academy, won first prize for his family photo in the seven to ten age category.

“Last summer we went out in the boat,” Joseph said. “I took a picture of my family floating in the water off the boat.”

He admitted to a little frustration when he took his photograph.

“I was originally trying to put a filter on it to make everyone look kind of funny,” Joseph confessed. “But it did not work so I ended up just taking an ordinary photo. It was too far away for the filter to work.”

Joseph was not entirely happy with it, even after winning a prize.

“I thought the photo from the runner-up was better,” he said.

But Joy said: “It was a good picture.”

The siblings have different approaches to photography.

“A good photograph has to have that thing where you look at it and say wow, I really like it,” Joy said. “Some pictures are pretty but they don’t have something special about them. There needs to be something different.”

Joseph mostly likes to take funny pictures.

“I like to change up stuff,” he said. “When you take a picture you can edit it to make the picture look different. Usually, I just take pictures of my sisters and draw moustaches on them.”

The Yammine children have mainly used their parents’ mobile phones to take photographs, but can now switch things up. Joy’s prize was a Cannon EOS DSLR camera with lenses, a tripod, a memory card, lens filters and a monopod.

“I am really grateful to have that because now I can just take it out and take pictures,” Joy said.

Joseph received an Iron Kids Accounts at Clarien Bank and $200. “I wish I won a camera,” Joseph said. But Joy offered to let him borrow hers, just as soon as she figured out how to use it.

“My teacher at school said she would show me how to use it,” Joy said.

Their parents, cardiologist Joseph Yammine, and paediatrician, Nisrene Atieh, were surprised, but pleased when they got a message saying both children were finalists in the competition.

They did not know what the children had won until the prize giving at the National Museum of Bermuda in Dockyard.

“It is fantastic that they both got something,” Dr Atieh said. “Both my children have a good eye, and are good at taking a picture quickly.”

Joy’s usual photo subject is nature. Before taking the photo of the children in the rain, one of her best shots was of a longtail at Admiralty Park in Pembroke.

“It came a little close to the rocks,” she said.

She has access to editing software, but does not use it very much. “The lighting on the island is already really good,” she said.

Joy said the trick to taking a good photograph is seeing things a little differently.

“Even with beaches and sunsets, you can take a really good picture and just see it from a different way,” she said.

She is not sure what she wants to do as a career yet, but thinks it will have something to do with mathematics or physics.

“Mathematics is one of my best subjects,” she said. “I also like chemistry and biology.”

She does art in school but said her photography is probably better than her drawing.

Joseph said: “My favourite subjects are computers, gym and recess. I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up.”

The family came to Bermuda from Rhode Island eight years ago.

Joy said taking part in the competition has definitely inspired her to go out and take more photos and maybe enter the competition again next year.

“But as far as art goes right now, I am mainly focused on piano,” she said. “I take classes online.”

She also does swimming and tennis.

“It is about having the right amount of those things in your life,” Joy said.

She said photography has helped her to appreciate what is around her more. “It makes you look at things more closely,” she said.