Karen Copeland

Born and raised in Canada, Karen received her B.Sc. in biology from the University of Waterloo, her M.D. from the University of Western Ontario and interned at McMaster University in Hamilton. Detouring from hospital hallways, Karen soon became a whitewater guide and published photographer, fulfilling a passion for knowledge that began with botany and led to geology and ornithology.

Karen has worked as a full-time naturalist for Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic since 1991. Her interest in writing continues in the daily expedition reports she writes as well as in a recently published paper on the foraging behavior of gentoo penguins.

Karen is intimately familiar with the seas and the shores of Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Baja California and Mexico, Central America, South America and the far reaches of the world from Iceland, Svalbard, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, the British Isles and the Baltic in the north, to the Azores and Mediterranean at mid-latitudes and Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula in the south. She loves sharing the joy of adventure and the natural world with others.

She received her Photo Instructor certification in a multi-day training workshop.  Developed and taught by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions photographers, the workshop helped her develop additional insight and skills necessary to help you better understand your camera and the basics of composition — to better capture the moments at the heart of your expedition.