For Margaret River student Gary Quintrell an injury which prevented him from doing his trade resulted in a life changing decision to train in an area he was passionate about – digital media.
Mr Quintrell has just returned from the Philippines after being paid for creating his first commercial video for International resort, Casa Amara.
Mr Quintrell was a boilermaker for many years when an injury left him unable to work in his trade.
Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he decided to further his career and follow his passion for photography, something he’d been interested in since school.
After enrolling in a Certificate IV Digital Media course at South Regional TAFE Margaret River, Mr Quintrell set about pursuing his vision and taking step towards setting up his own digital media business.
“I happily soaked up all the knowledge and skills I could during my course,” Mr Quintrell said.
“The learning environment met my individual needs as it took into account the understanding and skills I already had and allowed me to build on this.
“I learned so much and it was such an enjoyable experience. We had a blast!”
Mr Quintrell’s digital media lecturer Fran Jackson is also an experienced photographer and runs her own business.
She helped Mr Quintrell further develop his photography skills and he soon began entering competitions and putting his photos out into the public eye.
He entered a South West photography competition and was one of 13 winners out of 900 entries.
Mr Quintrell was also part of a group of digital media students from across Western Australia who travelled to China as part of a study tour in 2017.
The experience helped open his eyes to the world of international opportunities for digital media specialists.
Mr Quintrell has combined his experience in drone photography to create landscape photos and videos, including aerial footage of a whale taken off the coast of Margaret River which appeared in statewide news coverage.
He is now studying a Certificate IV in Small Business Management at South Regional TAFE Margaret River which he hopes to complete at the end of this term.
He said the latest studies had helped him set up a database of contacts to maximise his time and further develop client packages.
