Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor icon Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor

Ian Strachan

One steady constant in Ian’s life has been the ocean. Born by the rocky shores of mid-coast Maine, his family repatriated to far north Queensland in Australia early on in his life where he became a dual-citizen and sparked his passion for exploring new environments. Living only an hour away from the Great Barrier Reef served to direct, if not focus, the exhilaration of discovery and set him on his current path. Returning to native soil for education, Ian was fascinated by altogether too many subjects, leaving him with a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in Psychobiology, focusing on animal behavior and perception, and with minors in Astronomy, History, and Environmental Science.

Upon graduating, Ian found the perfect way to quench his wanderlust by working aboard expedition ships. Starting out as a deckhand on board the National Geographic Sea Bird he found an affinity for life at sea and quickly found his way onto the expedition team and the rest of the Lindblad fleet. He has worked in a variety of roles, finally settling on photographic instructor and naturalist. Spending more time at sea than on land over the past years has fostered something of a migratory instinct, consequently he lists his address as “various” and is more at home on deck with a camera than anywhere else.