A PHOTOGRAPHY student from St Albans has snapped up a major award for a picture he took of his younger sister.

Joel Saunders, an A-level student at Verulam School, took the picture of seven-year-old Ava as she sat atop an upturned boat and entered it in Coast magazine’s Photographer of the Year competition.

The 16 year old was announced winner of the People at Play category and his picture, entitled Little Girl on Upturned Boat, is in March’s edition of the magazine. It will also be displayed at the forthcoming Country Living Spring Fair which will be held in Islington in March. Joel, who took the picture while out walking with his family when they visited Blakeney in Norfolk, took the time to set up the shot properly but says it was spontaneous in the sense that they’d just been out walking when he decided to take it.

He won a framed and mounted high quality print of his winning photograph and was told by the editor of Coast that his was quite an achievement as there had been numerous entries of a very high standard.

Joel is hoping to go on to study photography at university.