An Evening in Hamburg

One shall always combine business with pleasure, as the saying goes. Thus, when I had to go on a business trip to Hamburg for several days, it was clear that I had to take my camera along.

Let’s go to Hamburg

The Hanseatic town is always worth visiting to for me. One the one hand side, I have family here, and there is an abundance of fabulous and creative people. More often than not I have returned with great ideas and memories. One the other hand, I have spent quite some time here. Back when I was just getting started in my current occupation – ironically not long after having moved from Darmstadt to Munich, i.e., the opposite direction – I had a number of projects up here that lasted for several months. The journey on the night train every Monday or Tuesday, and the flight back home on Friday evening, was a fixed part of my schedule for many weeks.

Quite naturally, some pivot points establish when you spend some time in another city. First and foremost, there is the central train station. It is not only the start and end point for every stay, but also the gateway to the pedestrian area downtown. And of course, it is a public transport hub that will basically take you anywhere. The second location on that list is the jetties: Landungsbrücken. This is where the ferry to Finkenwerder departs, where our office used to be back in the day. From here, you can also easily get to the harbor and the warehouse district.

Of course, the city with the most bridges worldwide offers a wide variety of sights. Most famously, there is the Miniatur Wunderland, world’s largest model railway. It has been a while since I’ve been there, so I don’t know the latest extension covering South America yet. Due to the short opening hours in winter, I didn’t make it this time either. Then, there is the Elbphilharmonie with its public panoramic terrace, and so much more. But in the end, it was a business trip, and I only had a single evening of “downtime”.

Vespertine Walk in gentle Rainfall

Whenever I attend an intense meeting that lasts for several days, I need a break at some point. Eventually, the brain will be overloaded, and everything that was learnt and discussed during the day needs time to settle. For exactly this reason, I brought my camera and the small travel tripod along. So, I dropped off the laptop at the hotel and went out. I took the subway to Meßberg station, located at the eastern of the warehouse district known as Speicherstadt.

There, you will find the Water Castle, one of the most famous photo subjects in Hamburg. However, the current political events leave their marks even here: due to the energy crisis, the artful illumination is currently switched off. But even just the usual light from the illuminated windows makes for a atmospheric image. Thanks to the tripod I was able to use exposure times of up to 30 seconds, which gives the water a satiny gloss.

Of course, my walking tour was accompanied by a light drizzle that is so typical for Hamburg it is also referred to as ‘Hanseatic sunshine’. I didn’t mind the gentle rain at all, on the contrary, I added appealing reflections and light effects on the wet streets. When wandering through the warehouse district, it also always worthwhile to peek into the inner courtyards as far as they are publicly accessible. The third image down below is a perfect example. The bicycles make the image appear lively with our directly showing any people.

My route took me all the way through the warehouse district to Landungsbrücken, where I boarded the ferry to Finkenwerder. I got off at the Dockland office building. It has a very distinct appearance, mimicking a yacht. It’s a great photo subject from the land side, where it is reflected in the water, and you can see the harbor lights in the background. In addition, its outside features stairs by which you can get all way up to the top of the roof, from where you have a fantastic panoramic view of the Elbe River and the harbor.

Quite naturally, my tour ended back at the central train station, which is also quite close to the hotel I stayed at. I couldn’t resist the temptation to set up my tripod on the Steintordamm bridge and take pictures of the trains arriving and departing. The illuminated Central Library is a nice eye-catcher in the background. Long exposure times make for lengthy light trails created by the trains’ tail lamps. And yes, I admit, I helped it somewhat with Photoshop – the four trains did not depart at the same time. But who would know?

The Results

The evening rendered several really nice photographs. One or more of those will certainly find their way into my 2023 calendar. All pictures are HDR (high dynamic range) images, composed of differently exposed single frames. This allows for capturing lots of details, in the darker shadow areas as well as the brightly lit windows. Post-processing was done in Adobe Lightroom, and for the train station, additionally in Photoshop.