Caught in the Moment

Vanessa Garnick

"Vanessa, a naturalist, goes on global adventures with Caught in the Moment co-host Tristan Bayer to film endangered species and animals in rare, beautiful and time-sensitive moments.

Caught in the Moment does not mark Vanessa’s first foray into the entertainment industry. At the early age of two, Vanessa sang and danced in front of 400 people at her parents’ Playhouse Theatre in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and she’s been entertaining ever since.

Vanessa grew up in Buffalo Valley on the outskirts of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks in Wyoming. She was raised on a dude ranch 40 miles from the nearest store, and got her first horse at age 5. A combination of cowboy naturalists and artsy theater gurus, Vanessa’s parents nurtured her desires for a career incorporating stage, screen and music mixed with her love for the wild world of animals and exotic travel. Between cooking on pack trips for her family’s Triangle C Ranch and starring in off-Broadway musicals, Vanessa found a passion for language and art.

The eldest of eight children, Vanessa forged the way for her siblings. Her experiences with her large, close-knit family became the building blocks for her unique perspective on life and contributed to her vivacious and endearing personality.

During her eighth-grade year, Vanessa traveled to Africa for a half-year trip with her grandparents. Living in a cow-manure hut with the Masaai tribe, she discovered a deep love for Third World countries and exotic adventure. It was in Africa where she caught the travel bug, and her desire to see new places has only increased with time. Vanessa began scrapbooking, journaling, sketching and painting, and even wrote children’s books. Fluent in Spanish, she taught English as a second language to Spanish-speaking children.

Vanessa became a certified naturalist with the National Forest Service, taught art classes at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and designed theater sets for multiple productions.

Vanessa has played several roles in independent films, wildlife and reality shows, and music videos. In addition, she travels the world as a freelance art and travel consultant. When she's not filming, Vanessa guides adventure tours in Brazil, Australia, Argentina, Chile, England, Japan, Costa Rica and throughout the United States. As part of the music group The SaddleRock Sisters, Vanessa, with four of her sisters, acquired a record deal with DreamWorks and recorded in London and Nashville. The SaddleRock Sisters now are creating their own label and record sassy country-rock harmonies in Wyoming.

In her spare time, Vanessa learns foreign languages, paints, creates graphic design and builds her worldwide travel company. She lives in Panama, but regularly heads to her family home in the Wyoming mountains to ride her painted pony, breathe fresh air and get back to nature."

Tristan Bayer

"Tristan, a young wildlife filmmaker, goes on global adventures with Caught in the Moment co-host naturalist Vanessa Garnick to film endangered species and animals in rare, beautiful and time-sensitive moments.

Tristan's first production experience occurred when he was just 2 weeks old and he began traveling with his parents, a wildlife filmmaking team that journeyed to the far corners of the world to shoot documentaries. He's never looked back.

When Tristan was 2 years old, he traveled with his parents to East Africa, where they were making a film. He began learning about other cultures and memorizing the Swahili names of animals while floating above the African landscape in hot air balloons and chasing elephants in Range Rovers. These experiences were the building blocks for his unique point of view while growing up in the small town of Jackson Hole, Wyo., on the outskirts of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

Throughout his schooling, Tristan took advantage of every opportunity to skip class to work overseas as a crew member with his father, a renowned cinematographer, Wolfgang Bayer. They made wildlife films for such companies as Discovery Communications, Nature, Nova, National Geographic, ABC and PBS. Tristan started keeping written journals and sketches, and then took up still photography. Soon, he got his hands on a video camera. He began shooting behind-the-scenes video of his trips and presented his adventures to his classmates back in Wyoming. In junior high school, Tristan found himself creating multimedia "show-and-tell" presentations that entertained and educated his peers. Occasionally, Tristan's work was published in magazines such as Ranger Rick. In seventh grade, Tristan was named "Media Student of the Year" in recognition of his still photography and video achievements as well as his technical skills.

In eighth grade, after much soul searching, Tristan made up his mind that he wanted to be a painter, 3D animator, biologist, stuntman and, of course, an astronaut. In his spare time, he wanted to maintain his hobbies as a photographer and videographer. Little did he know that these experiences with media and the natural world would spawn a career that combined all his favorite disciplines into one.

Tristan is now the owner of *EarthNative Inc., a multimedia production company. EarthNative is dedicated to pushing the limits on the communication of ideas through creative storytelling and expression. Tristan has traveled the planet as a freelance director/cinematographer, worked on adventure races in Brazil, shot behind the scenes during the Academy Awards, directed music videos, worked as a director of photography on feature films, and appeared in front of the camera, as well. Tristan wrote, edited, narrated, co-directed a feature-length film, Earthling with his father. Playing themselves, each member of the Bayer family revealed Earthling at its world premiere at the 2005 Seattle International Film Festival, and they will screen the film at festivals all over the world as a 35mm big-screen cinematic experience in digital surround sound.

In his spare time, Tristan works to develop ways of combining his new style of multimedia "show and tell" with his childhood dreams of space exploration. Tristan regularly heads back to beautiful Jackson Hole to recharge his mind, body and spirit with the fresh mountain air."

Episodes

1. Costa Rica - Tristan and Vanessa go to Costa Rica to film the "arribada" a sea turtle mass nesting. More than 150,000 olive ridley sea turtles haul themselves up on a 1-kilometer stretch of beach. Capuchin monkeys, ghost crabs, coatis and Jesus Christ lizards or basilisks are also filmed.

2. British Columbia - Tristan and Vanessa explore the Great Bear Rainforest following the Pacific salmon migration. Their main goal is to film the spirit bear, or Kermode bear. It's not another species or an albino it is just a white black bear. Orcas, grizzly bears, and black bears star in this episode too.

3. Cocos Island - Tristan and Vanessa travel to the largest uninhabited island, off the coast of Costa Rica. Diving in at the chance Tristan and 'Nessa film a huge school of hammerhead shark. With some high-tech gear they get their shot. Filling the water and the episode are white-tipped shark, manta rays, and dolphins.

4. Japan - Tristan and Vanessa fly to Japan to film the elegant and endangered red-crowned crane and its beautiful mating dance. With the help of Mrs. Watanabe, a Japanese woman who has been feeding the cranes in her back yard for several years, the crane is making a population comeback from only 25 to 1,00. The show also features Japanese macaques and Steller's sea eagles.

5. Madagascar - Tristan and Vanessa go to Madagascar to film Verreaux's sifaka. They aim to film the acrobatic lemur's long range jump. Ring tailed lemurs and chameleons are also viewed.

6. India - Tristan and Vanessa find themselves in Jodphur, India hoping to film the Hanuman langurs. The langurs coexist with humans in this city. The human citizens believe they are incarnations of the Hindu god Hanuman. Later, Tristan and Vanessa travel to the red cliffs of Daijar to film more langurs. The blackbuck and brown rat are given some screen time too.

7. Monterey Bay - Tristan and Vanessa are now on their way to America's largest marine sanctuary, known as the "Serengeti of the Sea". Tristan and Vanessa hope to tape the grey whale migration, however there are killer whales or orcas waiting for these whales as they pass through the sanctuary.

8. Thailand - Tristan and Vanessa visit Thailand. They mission this time is to film some wild Asian elephants. The only problem is that they are very much endangered in the wild. Their first stop is the city Chiang Mai, Thailand's largest city. They are appalled at the sight of young elephants on street corners being used to help beggars get some attention. Later, they go to an elephant sanctuary which rescues elephants that were mistreated on streets and in safari camps.

9. Mongolia - Tristan and Vanessa travel to Mongolia to film the wild horse, or better known as the Przewalski's horse. Also featured in the episode are marmot and vulture.

10. Best Moments - Composed of best moments from the previous nine episodes, ended with the conservation music video which Tristan Bayer had been talking all through the show. The song is Touch the Sky performed by Irish group Young Dubliners.