The Break Free Program

It might be a dream.

But if so, it’s a very good dream.

I applied to The Olympus Break Free Program weeks ago without any thought that I would actually be selected. It felt like a long shot, but as the saying goes “nothing ventured nothing gained”. I’ve been shooting with an Olympus camera for about 2 years now, and I do love it. I got the EM 5 Mark 2 because it was reasonably within my budget, offered a lot of features for the price, and was shockingly compact and lightweight. It’s stood up remarkably well through 2 years of backcountry trekking, riding, skiing, and even a raft trip. And I’m not going to lie, I’m not the most careful of people. I generally find myself sighing and saying “This is why I can’t have nice things” pretty regularly. I’ve had a secret love affair from afar with the EM 1 Mark 3, but knew that wasn’t in the budget since I don’t make any money from this hobby I love (well, not yet anyway - ideally I will someday).

So I applied. Because why not?

And much to my shock, delight, excitement, and so on… I was selected.

I will be using the next 2 1/2 months to try to tell a story with the support of Olympus Visionary Peter Baumgarten.

Telling my story of diversity and adventuring

Because we’re out here doing awesome things

From the Olympus website, my first Break Free Blog post:

My name is Natalie Grybiene (she/her) and I am a 42 year old mixed race woman, wife of an immigrant, mother of four boys, professional emergency room nurse, and athlete. These are a few of the many things that most define and influence me as a photographer and a human. I started getting interested in photography in a way a lot of people do; I had children. I had a particular interest in learning the technical aspects of photography because I started with a film camera and couldn’t afford to waste the film on bad shots. My true obsession with photography really didn’t start until about 10 years ago when I moved to Colorado and found inspiration in the mountains. I invested in my first digital camera, and my photography jumped to a completely new level.

Living in Colorado also expanded my interest in outdoor sports. I rapidly found an interest in hiking, then skiing, and then road biking, paddleboarding, and most recently rock climbing as I’ve become more acclimated to my mountain home.

The Break Free program called to me as a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from a professional mentor and expand my photography skills and artistic storytelling abilities.

I was inspired to propose my project by the stories of black and brown women artists and athletes, their struggles to be seen and heard in an outdoor industry that seems to completely ignore their presence.

Women of color have been “out here doing it” in the shadows for years, but rarely get to see themselves or people who look like them represented in film and media. I’m just one person, one amateur photographer; but I’m motivated to amplify the stories and voices of women like myself.

I hike, climb, ski, bike, and paddle my way through this stunning Colorado landscape and not only do I want to show my own adventures, I want to find and highlight other women of color who are outside adventuring. The most exciting part of this project is that I will be traveling around my amazing home state, hopefully meeting a lot of fascinating women and getting to take their pictures with the breathtaking Colorado landscape as a background.

I am so honored to be invited to be a part of the Olympus family for a while and share my adventures.