Dr. Colin Bates

Colin is a marine ecologist, photographer, videographer, musician, and polar expedition guide. Colin has studied intertidal ecology from the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Bay of Fundy since 1996. He has biology degrees from Simon Fraser University (B.Sc. 1996), the University of New Brunswick (M.Sc., 2002), and the University of British Columbia (Ph.D., 2007). He is now an adjunct professor in the Botany Department at UBC, and works out of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.

Colin’s photography has graced countless textbooks, newspapers, and magazines, plus the walls of thousands of happy citizens worldwide.

In 2007, Colin was hired as the head videographer for Peregrine Adventures, producing videos during a 3-month stint in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. He has also made films in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and during most of his 8 trips to Antarctica. As a professional musician, Colin is also proficient in the recording and editing of audio.

Colin is the ‘science and technical’ half of the instructional team.

Jeff Morales

Jeff is the ‘big picture and industry’ half of the instructional team. Jeff’s affiliation with National Geographic Television dates back to 1992.  As a staff producer in the natural history unit, he crafted award-winning films, garnering four National Emmy awards and ten National Emmy nominations. His innovative 90-minute film chronicling the violent struggle for survival between South Africa’s great carnivores, “Predators At War”, won the prestigious New York Festivals Gold Medal for Directing and the Emmy for Outstanding Nature, Science and Technology program.   Today, based out of his home on Bowen Island, British Columbia, Jeff researches, develops, produces, directs and shoots a wide range of wildlife and human subjects. He is currently in production on a blue chip saltwater crocodile film that will air on the National Geographic Channel in 2010. A native of Southern California, Morales received his degree in Government & International Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 1986. After spending several years abroad, at various times supporting himself as a factory worker in Detroit, first mate on a sailing yacht in the Bahamas and a bluegrass musician in Paris and Rome, Jeff pursued his interest in the natural world. As a research assistant and bio-technician, Jeff spent several seasons conducting field research on the Alaska Peninsula, the Chesapeake Bay, the Channel Islands of California, and the rainforests of Queensland, Australia.

Feedback from previous courses:

“The combination of Colin Bates’ science background and technology knowledge with the professional, hands on experience of Jeff Morales from the prestigious National Geographic, made this course a dream come true. I talked to a few other people and I really think that this course changed the lives of many of us.”

“Every minute of every day spent with Jeff and Colin stand out in my mind as being the best experience I’ve ever encountered during my whole education. As a whole it was the most fulfilling course I have ever taken.”

“The fact that we were surrounded by amazing and inspiring guests and professors made this career now possible in my mind. It’s a real possibility in my life.”

“Colin was fantastic with the technical side of things and is a wizard with technology. His help was instrumental in actually putting our movie together. Jeff was really great at showing us the bigger picture. He really showed us what the world of documentary filmmaking is like.”