Beginnings:  The point in time or space at which something starts.  A beginning may be a new life or when the season changes.  We challenged our Lowepro Storytellers to show us what a “beginning” looks like and means to them.  

Photo by Daisy Gilardini

After 4 months in the maternity den this newborn polar bear exits the den for the first time. The beginning of a life exposed to a very harsh environment, facing for the first time temperatures as low as -50C with wind chill.

Wapusk National Park – Manitoba – Canada

Daisy Gilardini

Photo by Emily Polar

We can equate the word beginning as a direct reference to past and future. If there is no past or future “in an absolute sense” the word beginning would not exist.

Emily Polar

Photo by Arthur Ward

I’m sitting here, having a bowl of cereal, looking at this Lowepro Mission thinking to myself, Gosh, what photo could I possibly have that symbolizes the Beginning of something?” Then a light bulb went off! I shoot sports and every match, race or event has a beginning or start! So here’s a Sportrait from a session I did with the local university swim team last year.

ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/250th
Aperture: f/8
Lens: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D800

Arthur Ward

Photo by Annette White

The restaurateur in me always looks at fresh fruits and vegetables as the beginning of a creative meal to follow—dreaming of the possibilities. These berries and mushrooms were found at Chichicastenango market in Guatemala while perusing the aisles. Immediately in my mind, they were the beginning of a mouth-watering blackberry-mushroom sauce to pour over a perfectly grilled pork chop.

ƒ/5.0
1/640
ISO 1250

Annette White

Photo by Willow McDonough

And in the beginning… there was light!

Canon 60D
ISO 100
55 mm
f 5.6
1/125

Willow McDonough

It was an honour when one of our former brides asked Quin if she would document the birth of their first child.  I love this image Quin captured so perfectly of the vulnerable and beautiful first moments of Maria holding her firstborn.  Beginnings.

Dave & Quin Cheung

Photo by Tara Shupe

An elderly woman carefully wades through a remote lake in Chittoor, India as she prepares to be baptized. The lake is surrounded by Hindu villages and, although the preforming of the Christian baptisms could have been dangerous, she was too excited not to do it. She was getting a new “beginning” and couldn’t wait for it to start!

Nikon D810
ISO 160
85mm
f/4.5
1/1600

Tara Shupe

Photo by Viktoria Haack

Beginnings

Nikon D4
Nikkor 70-200 2.8 lens
ISO 200
200mm
F2.8
1/1000 sec

Viktoria Haack

Photo by Glenn Bartley

A few days old White-tailed Ptarmigan chick seeks safety under its mothers feathers high in the Rocky Mountains.

Glenn Bartley

Photo by Ryan Struck

Starting something new doesn’t always mean traveling to a place you’ve never visited before. To me, a new beginning is the ability to see the familiar with fresh eyes. This fall, I’m headed to Tofino to direct a short film about the creative women who are empowered by the the rugged coast lifestyle of British Columbia. I visited Tofino twice last year and am returning again in a few weeks with a dynamic perspective that I cannot wait to share in the form of a short documentary.

With the doors off of the helicopter, I captured this image on the Canon 5D Mark III paired with the 24-70 2.8 II, the perfect combo for aerial photography.

Ryan Struck

Photo by Shawn Talbot

For the subject of “beginnings” I thought about a question that many new photographers ask me: “How did you begin your career?” I spent my first eight years pounding the pavement in Vancouver, promoting myself door to door at ad agencies, rejection after rejection, living off of Kraft Dinner. Then a client took a big chance on me. Campion Boats was a large international boat manufacturer based in Kelowna, BC. With the help of the amazing team at Think Marketing, I managed to get my foot in the door and was awarded Campion’s annual contract. This one client taking a leap of faith was enough to make other companies say, “Ok, we can trust him.”

Eleven years later, I continue to shoot for Campion Boats and now I only eat Kraft Dinner because I like it.

Canon 5D Mark II at f/11, 1/800 second at ISO 400 on a 14mm lens.

Shawn Talbot

Photo by Jeff Hinman

Beginnings always starts from a transition or adjustment. I personally had a beginning three years ago. I was in the trades for ten years breaking my back for someone else’s buck. Then, three years ago, I picked up a camera. I transitioned my whole life and ran with my passion. If it wasn’t for this beginning I wouldn’t be the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Passion leads to inspiration, inspiration leads to movement, movement leads to achievement.

Jeff Hinman

Photo by Craig Pulsifer

The great thing about beginnings is that they can come at anytime in life.  Here, a young-at-heart couple escape the noise of life to consider the future while staying at the Tin Poppy Retreat in the hills above Salmon Arm, BC.  For them, the years ahead seem to hold hope and promise.

Canon 5D Mark III
70-200mm 2.8
1/2000, f/5, 400 ISO
Craig Pulsifer

Photo by Nathan Yan

This was the very first sunrise, on the first morning of a very different path.

Just a month earlier, I had left work as a software engineer, and its comfy confines of power-adjusting standing desks and all the free gourmet food I could stomach. I was embarking on a monthlong trek through the Swiss Alps, my first ever solo trip and a working hiatus to pursue a more long-term kind of travel, one without the time budgets that had me checkboxing through landmarks, and counting the days instead of the moments.

I flew in and arrived to a hostel in Lauterbrunnen the previous night, and early the next morning I tiptoed past the snoozing dormitory bunks to head out. 5,056 vertical feet later I gazed out all alone from a perch near Männlichen, overlooking this majestic glacier-carved valley that a hundred years earlier had inspired Tolkien to create the fabled cliffs and waterfalls backdropping the Elven town of Rivendell (of Lord of the Rings lore).

It is one year later, and at the moment I’m back again to romp across on the other side of the Alps, in the South Tyrolean Dolomiti region. It’s been about 15 months since I’ve sat in an office to work. What was supposed to be a monthlong hiatus has turned into full-time travel, some of it for photography and some of it just to sit my laptop down and code or edit in front of an awesome spectacle like this. Perhaps at some point along this path I may be inspired to settle down into my own Rivendell, but for the moment I can imagine no better life but that of a ceaseless wander.

Canon 6D
24mm
1/15s | ISO100 | f/8
Carried in the Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW

Nathan Yan
@thedustyrover

Photo by Gregg Jaden

Beginnings come in all forms, a new day, a new moment, forgiveness, happiness, a new adventure or even a new attitude. What matters most is what you make of your new beginning.

Gregg Jaden

Photo by Rachid Dahnoun

I was on assignment in Chiapas, Mexico photographing in the small coastal village of Madresal when the locals informed me they had a surprise for me after dinner.  Shortly after, a group of people showed up with several large buckets.  It took me a minute to realize the buckets were filled with hundreds of baby sea turtles.  There was a sea turtle rehabilitation project underway and the village waited for my arrival to release all the turtles into the ocean.  The mayor of the town held one of the turtles for this photo.  Shortly after the shot, we released all the turtles and watched them crawl across the beach into the mighty Pacific.  The experience remains one of my fondest travel memories of all time.

Nikon D3s
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
f/1.8
1/250 sec
ISO 2000

Rachid Dahnoun

Photo by Guy Fattal

This sunrise resembles a beginning of a new adventure, a new day, full of excitement. Although we are coming towards the end of summer, it is just the beginning of another greatly anticipated winter that is upon us.

Nikon D750
Nikon 24-70 f2.8
F/7.1
1/800 sec
ISO 400

Guy Fattal

Photo by Michael Teague

I shot this almost a year ago on my very first trip to Yosemite National Park. I was working the craziest hours at the shop trying to get everything done so I could enjoy my trip. I literally worked through the night and drove up the next day with no sleep as I was determined to see Taft Point before the sunset on my day. Well, I made it but the sunset wasn’t as epic as I hoped it would be. But, you know what?  It didn’t really matter. I made it in time to take in all Taft Point had to offer. I stood on the edge and breathed a huge sigh of relief as an unbelievable calm came over me. To be there in the moment on my birthday was all that mattered in that moment, on that day. Here’s a photo of a random person standing on a huge boulder at Taft Point

Cheers, to new beginnings

Michael Teague

This year, wildfires hit hard in British Columbia. One especially susceptible area is the interior of BC. In the summer it’s desert climate dries all of the surrounding brush and trees and makes for very high fire hazard. A friend of mine bought a house in Kamloops last year and, before the forest fire season started, he gathered and burned all of the brush on the lot in hopes of keeping his new home safe.

Fuji X100S
ISO 400
F 2.0
1/250s

Jordie Lepage, TOPO Films

Photo by Mitch Wu

This is an image that I feel says ‘beginnings’ literally (dandelion seeds being set free to begin life anew) as well as figuratively (the Hulk finding and embracing a new, softer side).  I feel that life is a constant flow of new beginnings – some obvious to us, others not.  New relationships, new careers, new ways of seeing things and new attitudes.

Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 135mm f/2L @ f/2
ISO 500
1/2000 sec

I used an IR remote shutter release to fire the camera as I blew the seeds into the air.

Mitch Wu

Photo by Luke Pearsall

Last weekend, I drove to Aspen to camp and make pictures. This only being my second Autumn in Colorado, I wasn’t quite sure if I would catch the leaves changing in the way that I had hoped. My fears came true when I arrived and most of the leaves on the Aspen trees were just barely beginning to change. As I was driving, I kept thinking about the word “Beginnings” that was assigned to us this month.  To me, fall doesn’t represent an end to Summer or an end to outdoor fun.  In a state like Colorado, it truly represents the beginning of so many new adventures. The leaves changing are the beginning to a season of color in the mountains and on the streets of Colorado, as patches of mountains are set on fire with the bright yellows and oranges of Aspens and Oak trees. So, with those thoughts in mind and as the story goes, we decided to take Independence Pass leaving Aspen on our way back home and, wouldn’t you know it, there on the mountainside was a patch of fire amidst a sea of evergreen trees. A treat from Mother Nature for putting in the effort to come see her great works. The beginning of Fall, the beginnings to new adventures.

Luke Pearsall

Photo by Matt Clark

With every new sunrise brings a fresh slate.

Canon 5d M3
24-70mm
f/4.0
250ss
500iso

Matt Clark

Photo by Joseph Roybal

This months mission was more of an internal one that I felt I needed to reflect on and see what came without forcing it. There are times as artists creativity can become a challenge, workloads stifling, vision confused and muddled. I’ve known for some time I needed a reset; some time away to get back to source and clear my mind of confusing thoughts and the daily email notification, text message – all of it. I recently set off to Iceland for three weeks in hopes of a new discovery, or personal new beginning I’ve been seeking. While there, I had so many firsts: my first $25 cheeseburger (which I ate record numbers of in my time there – FYI), seeing endless waterfalls and beauty everywhere I looked and the one thing I truly had never seen before: the Northern Lights. When I saw them for the first time I didn’t know what I was seeing. I thought there must be a little, white cloud hovering above me and I just sat there in my sleeping bag staring up at them become brighter and dance across the sky.  All I could think about how beautiful they were, and all that surrounds us in nature if we allow ourselves to recognize it. Now that I’m home catching up on emails, texting and calling friends, eating as many $1 cheeseburgers as I want, I am looking back in appreciation for the beginning this trip and what the image submission helped me realize.

Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
ISO 1000
4 seconds
f/2.8

Joseph Roybal

Photo by Kathryn Dyer

This was taken at Donner Lake. The Lake was high from all of the snow. Shortly after this shot, it froze.

Sony A7rii

Kathryn Dyer

Photo by Laura Barisonzi

This image of the pitch sequence of a professional pitcher was taken in an indoor pitching cage using four Profoto strobes which fired multiple times in the exposure to reveal the action of the pitch. I used four Profoto B2 heads and a PocketWizard MultiMAX to control the interval of the flashes precisely.

Laura Barisonzi

Aurora Lampson

About Aurora Lampson

Aurora is the Social Media and Community Manager at Lowepro. When not in the office Aurora is a professional commercial and portrait photographer.

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