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.
