By Angie Johnson-Schmit

- Jacques Yves Cousteau

Water defines the adventurous lives Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow lead. The Prescott, AZ residents are wildlife cinematographers, specializing in filming underwater. When you consider that over 71% of the planet is covered by water, they have plenty of places to explore.

Jacques Yves Cousteau W ater defines the adventurous lives Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow lead. The Prescott, AZ residents are wildlife cinematographers, specializing in filming underwater. When you consider that over 71% of the planet is covered by water, they have plenty of places to explore.

“When we’re not diving,” said Davidow, “we like to be around nature. Williamson Valley was a perfect place to live with access to hiking and lots of wildlife all around.” With easy access to the Los Angeles airport (LAX) from the Prescott or Phoenix airports, they don’t need to live by an ocean to get to their place of work in, on, and under the waves.

Campbell was born far away from an ocean on a farm in North Dakota. After his father was discharged from the Army in WWII, his family moved to Washington state. During one vacation, they visited a nearby coastal town in Oregon. It was the first time Campbell saw the ocean, and to this day he clearly remembers the smell of the sea, standing in the cold water, and finding a starfish in a tide pool.

When Campbell’s dad got a job in Calgary, Canada, the family moved north. Lloyd Bridges’ Sea Hunt series was popular at the time and the exciting adventures of Mike Nelson, the former Navy diver turned freelance scuba diver, made a big impact on Campbell. In the 10th grade, he dropped out of school but dreamed of becoming a professional diver. When the first scuba class came to Calgary in 1958, Campbell and a friend learned to dive. At the time, the only way to be a professional diver was to join the military, so he returned to the States, moving to California.

After completing the rigorous physical and mental demands required for the Marine Corps’ First Force Recon Company, Campbell went to the US Naval School of Underwater Swimmers in Key West, FL, where he graduated as a qualified Navy Diver. Part of a select Special Forces unit assigned to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), Campbell served in Vietnam as a combat diver conducting covert CIA-organized operations. The six years in the Marine Corps was an exciting time that launched his lifelong professional diving career.

While Campbell was in the early phases of his extensive military training, Davidow was growing up in Miami, Florida. Her family was keen on all things nature, spending weekends and holidays at the beach, where she learned how to swim and snorkel. There she developed a love of nature and a curiosity about the outdoor world that continue to enthrall her. Summer classes at the local science museum in marine biology and natural history led her to pursue her interests in the natural world through studies at Auburn University and Texas Tech University. She received degrees in geology, biology, and museum curation, specializing in vertebrate paleontology.

She worked in Petrified Forest, Glacier, and Denali National Parks before working as an expedition naturalist on small ships and private yacht charters. “Teaching people about places like the Sea of Cortez, the Amazon, Alaska’s Inside Passage, the Arctic and Antarctica is a real passion for me!”

When Campbell left the Marine Corps, he became a National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) diving instructor. Graduating from college with a degree in business and law enforcement, he then attended the California Highway Patrol Academy, which led to a decorated 22-year career in one of the world’s top law enforcement agencies.

But every chance he had, Campbell was out diving. Based in Santa Barbara, CA, the beautiful Channel Islands were in his backyard. With camera in hand, Campbell spent as much time as possible diving and taking underwater photographs, becoming one of the top underwater photographers of the time.

Campbell later switched his focus to motion pictures, becoming a sought after underwater cinematographer for Discover, National Geographic, the BBC, and many other production companies. When his earnings from photography and cinematography were greater than the CHP, he retired and started his third career as a cinematographer.

After years of shooting video, Campbell plunged into the world of High Definition (HD). At the time, the big production companies told him HD was just a fad that would never take off. But Campbell saw the future in HD, invested everything he had in it, and became the first cameraman to film HD underwater. It was a smart move: he amassed a high-definition stock library that was now in great demand by the major production companies.

Although she’d spent a lot of time snorkeling as a kid and worked as a shipboard naturalist, Davidow didn’t plunge deeper into the sea until a bit later. After 20 years of working as a naturalist, the professional photographer and writer wanted to add the underwater world to her explorations.

“I’d moved from Alaska to Bozeman, MT, and took SCUBA classes in the winter, carrying tanks during snowfalls into the high school pool,” said Davidow. After a bout with breast cancer in 2003, she decided to switch from still images to moving pictures. The following year, she attended the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, MT to learn more about filmmaking and to meet people in the business.

- Beth Davidow

It was during the first evening of the film festival that a mutual friend introduced Campbell and Davidow to one another. Campbell was there as a presenter and to teach a seminar in underwater filmmaking. Since that initial meeting, the two have been a team. During their 16 years together, they’ve traveled to many places, often chartering dive boats for a month at a time and having friends come along to share the adventure.

Recent trips include Komodo and Papua New Guinea to film unusual creatures, beautiful reefs, and manta rays; Dominica to film sperm whales; and Truk Lagoon in Micronesia to film WWII underwater wrecks. Their next expedition is to Raja Ampat, the center of ocean biodiversity in the IndoPacific region.

A few years ago, Tom put into motion the steps to make his longtime dream to live on a yacht a reality. After 6 years of research and 2 years of planning, they chose a semi-custom 51foot motor yacht built in Australia by Maritimo. After taking delivery of the yacht in Ensenada, Mexico, in February 2020, they spent a few months in Newport Beach, CA outfitting the yacht for a life of diving adventures. Scuba tanks and a compressor to fill them, a watermaker that turns seawater into fresh water, an exercycle to stay fit, and a cabin to hold their specialty underwater camera gear are a few of the features on their yacht.

In honor of New Zealand, where they have lived part time for the past 17 years, they named their Maritimo “Tangaroa.” To the Indigenous Maōri people of New Zealand, Tangaroa is the guardian of the sea. It seemed a fitting name for their motor yacht. Their home at sea, Tangaroa takes them in comfort and safety on their ocean adventures.

Once Tangaroa was outfitted, Campbell and Davidow headed south, spending 8 months in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Now based in Ventura, CA, Tangaroa will take them around the Channel Islands to dive, explore, and film those islands. The next leg of their adventure will take them north. In 2022, Tangaroa heads to Alaska. Exploring, diving, and filming along the way, they will continue to live their dream life on and under the water. They’re often asked how many people it takes to operate the boat. “We have a full crew! I’m the captain. We have an engineer, a navigator, a cook & housekeeper, and an onboard naturalist – and they’re all named Beth,” said Campbell.

Prescott, AZ is where they dry out their sea legs, but Tangaroa is where they are most at home. “Being able to share the beauty of the ocean environment and its varied inhabitants – and to show the effects humans have on the seas that are the very life support system for people and all life on the planet – is what we most love doing,” said Davidow.

To keep up with their latest aquatic adventures, find Wild Life Voyages on Facebook and Instagram, or visit their website at wildlifevoyages.com.