TOM CAMPBELL
Tom Campbell started his diving career at age 18 in the cold water lakes & rivers of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. He moved to California with the goal of becoming involved in professional military diving. After completing the rigorous physical and mental demands required for volunteers into the Marine Corps First Force Recon Company, Tom was sent to the US Naval School of Underwater Swimmers in Key West, Florida, where he graduated as a qualified Navy Diver. In 1964-1965, Tom was part of a select Force Recon unit that was assigned to MAC-V-SOG in Vietnam. He trained & lead 20 highly skilled Vietnamese Special Forces commandos to conduct highly classified covert operations organized by the CIA. Many of these secret operations were conducted off Norwegian-built “Nasty-class” boats.” A contingency of SEAL Team One supported these ops with specialized equipment. As a result of these operations, Tom was meritoriously promoted.
(After 35 years of secrecy, information about the Secret War in Vietnam is now available to the public in many articles, books, and videos. If you’d like to learn more about Tom’s experience in “The Secret War”, here’s a great book on the subject “SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam“)
After six years in the Marine Corps, Tom was badly injured and returned to civilian life. Shortly after his discharge and recovery, Tom became a NAUI diving instructor and since then has introduced hundreds of people to the ocean realm.
After graduating from college with a degree in business and criminal law, he attended the California Highway Patrol Academy and started his career in one of the world’s top law enforcement agencies. While a patrol officer with the CHP, Tom was selected to be part of President Reagan’s security team.
Later, as the CHP’s public affair’s officer, Tom also started several successful educational projects including the “Sober Graduation Program” for high school and college students, designed to create an awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. Celebrities, including Kenny Loggins, John Travolta, and other movie stars worked with Tom to help spread the message. When featured on “Good Morning America,” the Sober Graduation Program was quickly expanded to other countries. Nancy Reagan saw the TV show and was so impressed she invited Tom and John Travolta to the White House to meet her and President Reagan.
After many years of shooting videos for television productions, Tom plunged into the world of large-format High Definition (HD) cinematography in 1998. As a pioneer in underwater HD, Tom is world renowned for his meticulous camera work and stunning imagery. His talents are in high demand around the world for assignments, which have taken him from the frigid waters of the North Atlantic to the tropics of the world. Recent projects include filming the President of Mexico for a PBS special (“Mexico: The Royal Tour); giant mantas in Mexico and Mozambique; BBC’s award-winning “Andrea: Queen of Mantas;” dugongs for the King of Abu Dhabi; shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon; venomous fish in Papua New Guinea; great white sharks in South Africa and Mexico; manatees in Florida; and the kelp forests of the Channel Islands.
Throughout his professional years, Tom has been a highly successful still photographer and cinematographer. His underwater still images and magazine articles have appeared in hundreds of popular publications worldwide.
International Wildlife, UNEP, and BBC’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions have honored Tom with world recognition. In addition, Tom often appears as a featured speaker at film festivals, such as those in Antibe, France; Lofoton, Norway; Wildscreen in England, as well as at festival in the US such as the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, the International Wildlife Film Festival, and the BLUE Ocean Film Festival, of which he is a founding board member.
He has completed assignments for a wide range of corporations such as the BBC, Continental Airlines, National Geographic, Discovery and History Channels, Time Life Books, New York and LA Times magazine. Tom feels that the most important contribution any wildlife photographer or filmmaker can make is to create an awareness that will protect and preserve our environment for future generations. To that end, he seeks out projects that feature scientists working on marine wildlife to better understand our endangered ocean habitats.
BETH DAVIDOW
Beth was born near the Florida Everglades where, growing up, her parents instilled in her a love of nature, a curiosity about the outdoor world and nearby ocean that she continues to explore with her insatiable wanderlust. As a kid she was always out & about, collecting bugs & birds, and taking classes such as astronomy & marine biology at the local science museum. Beth holds a Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences from Auburn University and a Master’s degree in museum science and vertebrate paleontology from Texas Tech University where she helped operate the planetarium, participated in many dinosaur digs, and curated museum collections.
During summer breaks at Tech, she began a career as a naturalist, combining her love of geology, biology, & photography working in Petrified Forest, Glacier, and Denali National Parks as a National Park Service ranger and naturalist guide. She then spent many years traveling on expedition ships as a naturalist in places such as the Sea of Cortez, the Caribbean, the Chilean Fjords, the Amazon, Alaska’s Inside Passage, and Antarctica. She’s also worked on private yacht charters in Alaska as a naturalist/ first mate/ photographer-guide.
For 20 years she enjoyed a successful career as a wildlife & nature photographer and writer. Her images and articles appeared in publications such as National Geographic Traveler, National Wildlife, Sierra Club, Audubon, GEO Germany, Outdoor Life, Montana, Nature’s Best, Florida Wildlife, Alaska, WildBird, Ranger Rick, and many other magazines, books, calendars, and advertisements worldwide.
From polar bears to penguins, Beth’s been fortunate to have had adventures between the poles including 5 weeks spent as a guide with polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, camping among musk ox & migrating caribou in Greenland & the Canadian Arctic, hiking among the wild creatures of the North American Rockies & Alaska, and perambulating with penguins on 14 voyages to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands. As a trained scientist, she loves delving deep into the geology, biology, and natural history of everything she sees.
To feel most immersed in the natural world, Beth enjoys scuba adventures with giant manta rays in Mozambique, Mexico, and Komodo, swimming with humpback whales in Tonga, and exploring underwater ecosystems & wildlife elsewhere.
Traveling in her truck camper around our own continent takes her to some of the most beautiful, peaceful, and interesting wild spaces closer to home. Sharing stories of the people she meets who work to better understand, interpret, protect and preserve our natural world is her joy.