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I’m back in Hamburg right now! The weather was great and I got around a lot. Let’s get into it!

First off, I know I haven’t reached out to some people in my time here. If you’re one of those people, I apologize! Things have been very chaotic and I haven’t quite gotten to do everything I wanted. There’s a lot going on right now.

My trusty old bike always gets to enjoy the weather with me.

Reflections & Notes

Being back in Hamburg is interesting. Locals often say that Hamburg is “the most beautiful city in the world”, and although that claim is mostly made by people who bring their passport when traveling to Harburg, between May and September I’d say there is something to it.

Vast trees provide shade anywhere you go, the Außenalster is refreshing when you jump in the first time of the year, and everybody’s outside. The issue is that consciously or not, most locals seem to share my sentiment about Hamburg being gorgeous only some of the time, and so when the sun is out and the temperatures cross 25°C for the first time the whole city is out in the parks.

This makes for some incredible vibes: I love to see people coming out, enjoying themselves and living their lives to the fullest. As a photographer, there is a lot more to shoot than when it’s rainy and everybody’s inside! But also, it gets crowded.

This article will consist mainly of impressions of this last weekend. Friday, I was out exploring Hamburg by bike with a friend; Saturday I did nothing and have no pictures, but Sunday I went out to a Baseball game, went to Planten un Blomen and walked around the city a fair bit. I’ve also tried to improve at portraits, so there’s going to be some of that as well.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get into the pictures!

The Photos

Friday

On Friday I met with a friend, and we headed through the “Alter Elbtunnel”, a tunnel that crosses the Elbe river. The weather was quite rainy, so all the shots have a bit of a moody feel to them.

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The harbour, the Elbtower construction, and the train around Elbbrücken – 1/3

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Urban adventures – 1/3

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The cherry blossom festival fireworks – 1/3

We managed to randomly stumble into one of the biggest fireworks event in Hamburg, the Kirschblütenfest (“cherry blossom festival”). The fireworks were very nice, but we got massively stuck in a crowd afterward, and it delayed us getting home by almost an hour.

Sunday

On Sunday, I got to watch my very first baseball game. There was also the Japan festival going on in Planten un Blomen, arguably the most central and most definitely prettiest park in Hamburg. Upon stopping by, we realized that even half an hour before closing it was still much too crowded for us, and we quickly moved on.

I did, however, snap a few nice portraits and some impressions of Hamburg on a warm Sunday afternoon.

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Vintage Hamburg – 1/2

I'm still trying to get the hang of portraits, but I felt this one turned out alright

As I was going home, I lost another half hour to two older guys playing chess outside. I sat with them, played two games, got completely demolished. It was great fun though. I didn’t get either of their names, but the guy on the right kept talking about wanting to move to America and joining the Amish. When I asked him if I could take a photo and explained what it was for, I told him that I’d send him the finished blog post if he gave me his email. He simply said he did not have such things. That tracks, I guess.

These guys were honestly super chill.

Closing Notes

I may have to switch up the schedule for the blog a bit. I’m still experimenting right now, and frequently enough I only get out on the weekends for taking photos, so having a finished article every Sunday is turning out to be somewhat unrealistic. For now I’ll aim for “early in the week” and see if I can find a more precise schedule along the way.

If you’re still here, thanks for sticking around, and I’ll see you next time!