Having had a long interest in photography and being a member of surf lifesaving Josh bought a waterproof camera and started taking surf photos. Before long he was looking for ways to take his photography further which is how he discovered the New Zealand Diploma in Photography at UCOL Te Pūkenga.
Around this time the Covid Lockdowns began and it proved to be the perfect opportunity to reset and change his career path by enrolling in the diploma.
"The Photography diploma at UCOL was fantastic. The lecturers provided us with an amazing learning experience, introduced us to industry professionals, and helped us secure work within the industry. Sharing this experience were my classmates, an awesome group of like-minded and talented individuals, whom I thoroughly enjoyed studying with."
Halfway into his second year of study, Josh experienced some personal hardship that made it almost impossible to complete his studies. Through the support of both the Creative Faculty staff and the Student Success team at UCOL a way forward was found so Josh could continue his studies.
"Being a learner in the creative block also allowed me to meet learners in other courses and disciplines. Some of the learners working on a film project were looking for crew members and since I had a small amount of experience from having done 48-hour film festivals and operating a boom mic on productions, I volunteered to help out. Working on their sets sparked an interest in film production and after that I decided to expand my skills this year by enrolling in the
Bachelor of Creative Media."
"The
Bachelor was a huge change from the
diploma as it was multidisciplinary and we quickly picked up a wide variety of skills. In the second semester, we were given the chance to specialise and select from a variety of briefs from Illustration, Photography, Film, and 3D Animation."
"I am really looking forward to exploring these options over the next couple of years, I have recently completed a videography project which I am proud of, it's got me hooked and I am looking forward to doing more"