Through a Lens and Milano

Travel photography is like a baby cheetah.  At first the collection is so cute and cuddly you can never imagine it would do you harm, and then the animal grows (and grows) so quickly it become dangerously close to disaster.   I often find that I take so many photographs so quickly that I never really have a chance to go back and weed out my favorites and discard the blurred, cutoff, or unflattering images from my trips.  When I travel, I often capture moments I'll never experience again, moments so fleeting that it's tough to hit "delete" even on what would be categorized as a poor photograph. 

A while back, an opportunity came along to enter an architectural photography competition.  Knowing that the majority of my travel photos end up focusing on architectural subjects, I decided to go back in my archives to search for a few potential candidates.  It allowed me to actually spend a little time processing each photo to it's greatest potential.  To my surprise, I learned today that one of my images was selected as an honorable mention, alongside a group of talented professional architectural photographers.  "What a feat!"  I thought, and now the world will know I used a dinky Cannon Elph to capture this image.  Take that expensive camera on my wishlist for the past three years!  It's not the paint, it's the artist, etc., etc....

Athens Olympic Village photo by Jenny Guggenheim

While the above photo was recognized by the jury, the photo below still wins my heart.  I'm sure that has nothing to do with the Cinque Terre's special white wine or pesto.  I may retire here.

Manarola, Cinque Terre photo by Jenny Guggenheim

 With that said, this is the perfect opportunity to officially announce to my readers that Fig Studio is traveling to the Salone Del Mobile 2012 (AKA, the Milan Furniture fair) this April to experience what can be labeled as Ground Zero for contemporary design.  Each year, the fair showcases the best (and sometimes worst) in the world of interiors.  My job is to look, listen, and document with scrutiny.  I'll bring back an enormous wealth of information to share with my clients and integrate into my work the rest of the year.  I had the pleasure of attending both Dwell on Design and IDS West in 2011-- what a great way to recharge my design batteries and amass inspiration for my clients.

Beyond Milan, my husband and I have plans to extend the trip to both Marrakech and Barcelona, two places I've been lusting after for years.  I can't wait to wind through the Medina and witness Gaudi first hand.  I'm pinning my travel to-do list like crazy over on Pinterest.  See you there?