Boarding Pass – Janet Blyberg

By the time this post goes live – fingers crossed all goes well – my plane will have landed in Paris and I will have made my way to Gard du Nord to catch a train to Aachen, Germany to visit my good friend Amber. So for today’s edition of Boarding Pass it only seemed fitting to post Janet Blyberg. I first met Janet at a Baltimore bloggers brunch, but we’ve since kept in touch through our blogs. By day Janet is a curator for a museum in DC, meaning she has a wonderful eye for all things beautiful. I absolutely love her photographs as there is a softness and elegance that feels like she’s curating behind the camera. Many of her travels have taken her through Europe, so I thought she’d be a perfect fit to start of the week. {Thanks, Janet!}

last trip taken:
{Scotland}
next trip on deck:
A driving tour of New England. And later this summer, Germany.

{Maine}
one place you would go back to again and again:
London, London, and London. Every time I go, I find something new to adore.
{Hampton Court: London}
place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
I say, go where your heart takes you. And don’t wait, just go!

{Venice}
{Venice}
preferred method of transportation:
The train! I love being able to look out the window at the landscape. I also like subways. For some reason I loathe taxis, so am pretty committed to using public transportation wherever I go.
{Denmark}
place you’ve never been but dying to go:
Norway. I got a small taste of Scandinavia last winter when I visited Denmark and Sweden.
place you’d never go back:
I have learned to never say never!
{Swangrove: Attingham}
most memorable trip:
Last summer I spent three weeks in England, attending the Attingham Summer School Program—visiting 25 country houses in 18 days! While it was a pretty rigorous schedule with no time to relax (much less sleep), nothing can compare to having the opportunity to study places like Chatsworth and Petworth in a truly in-depth way.
{Ham House: England}

how do you prepare for a trip?

I am obsessed with travel guides and maps. Being an academic at heart, I tend to like to see things that are off the beaten track. The Blue Guides are my favorite as they are so well written and researched.

how do you record your travels when you’re traveling?
With my camera. And I collect and send postcards along the way. I don’t keep a journal, but I do jot down references to paintings, buildings, restaurants, etc. in a little notebook.
{Scotland}
what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
Skies! But, I also really love buildings and gardens. And all those little everyday details that if you don’t catch them with your camera when you see them, are so quickly gone from your memory.
{Musee Carnavalet: Paris}
on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
Hundreds. I once had a photography professor who said “film is cheap and life is short”—and that was before digital came along.
{Paris}
what’s in your “designer travel kit” ?
I travel light. Really light. Honestly, as long as I have a map and my camera, I am good to go. When I travel, I usually have a very packed schedule, so I don’t like to be weighed down by a lot of stuff. On recent 4-day trip to Paris, I brought with me one small carry-on bag. When I went through customs on my return to Washington, the officer looked at me and asked where my suitcase was. I told that my bag was it. She said “Girl, I need more than that to cross the street.”

{Israel}
{Japan}
what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
The first thing I try to do is get something up on my blog, usually within a day or two. Then I get my images organized, edited, and uploaded to flickr. Depending on how many images I have, this can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. I try to be pretty ruthless with my photographs—distilling them down to the very essence of my trip.

{Scotland}
more from Janet:
blog: ~JCB~
{Paris}

Click HERE to see all the fabulous artists and designers featured in BOARDING PASS!

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