Hamburg is an interesting city that, at first at least, I didn’t enjoy as much as other places in Germany. However, as I spent longer and explored more, I realised that there were areas I really loved and it turned out to be a great city for photography. This is my visual guide to photography in Hamburg.
It probably didn’t help that I arrived in Hamburg after spending time in the Black Forest and Berlin but my first impressions were not necessarily great. I stepped out of the Central Station and decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to my accommodation (Numa St Georg Hamburg) and immediately realised what a terrible decision that was; I stopped to take a photo of a cool corner of a building and suddenly felt that the whole world was looking at me. I couldn’t help but think for the next ten minutes or so that I was being followed – I mean I had a suitcase, a backpack and a camera – I had a little red target on my back. After some evasive manoeuvres like I was in Bourne Identity and as I got further away from the station, I felt safer and couldn’t wait to step inside my pin-coded hotel lobby.
I gave myself a short break before heading back out to explore the city proper, get some food and see if I felt safe wandering around with my camera out. Thankfully, there was a U-Bahn station literally right outside my hotel which helped bypass the Central Station area altogether. It’s no surprise that Hamburg attracts all manner of people, it’s the third busiest port in Europe and Germany’s largest seaport. However, scratch beneath the surface and what you will find is a very pretty city where the industrial docks serve as an important backdrop for they are ultimately what makes Hamburg, Hamburg. As time passed in the city, what initially struck me as an eyesore, gradually grew on me and felt a little comforting by the end. Strange, I know.
Anyway, I was primarily in Hamburg for the Traverse conference but the tourism boards for both Germany and Hamburg as well as the Traverse team ensured that we experienced all Hamburg had to offer both within the city and a short distance away. Any free time we had was spent photographing the streets, having a beer or two and exploring as many different neighbourhoods, U-Bahn stations and coffee shops as possible. It was also great to catch up with friends and meet new people within the travel blogging community. It’s strange as, despite blogging for almost ten years now, I’ve only felt brave enough to start attending social and networking events more recently. For example, I met Brad of BradsBackpack earlier this year yet it turns out we get on so well, see the world in a similar way and see photography as such a big part of life.
Hopefully you’ll get a good sense of what Hamburg feels like to visit through these photos and hopefully it will serve as inspiration to visit or give you a good idea of what you can capture.
My ‘On The Streets’ Photography Series
My ‘On The Streets’ series takes us across the world with short posts focusing solely on my unique style of travel and street photography. The series will never be complete but here’s a look at where I’ve covered so far:
Let’s do this then. It’s time for a virtual wander around the streets of Hamburg; from Speicherstadt to the Elphilharmonie, Altona to HafenCity and mammoth WWII bunkers. I did however put the camera away around the Central Station; if you’ve visited Hamburg you’ll know why. This is what an autumnal week in Hamburg looks like through my lens.
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY IN HAMBURG
THE DETAILS
Let’s dive right into the specifics of what camera gear I used in terms of the lenses and bodies. I primarily used my Fujifilm X-T5 and very rarely used my X100VI this time out in comparison to Berlin. With the Fujifilm X-T5, I coupled it with the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 (which is my go-to travel lens these days) as well as the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4, Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 & the behemoth Fujifilm 50-140mm f/2.8.
It’s a lot of lenses I know(especially considering I did two weeks in Belgium with just my 17-40mm and the 56mm) but I was also travelling on a press trip through the Black Forest, Europa-Park & Baden-Baden and Berlin beforehand. The Sigma worked perfectly for this longer trip but many of my favourite images were captured on the 35mm f/1.4 and 56mm f/1.2 seemingly as per usual these days.
For those that are interested, like me, here’s the breakdown of the final images and what lenses I used the most:
Total – 814 images
Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 – 493 images
Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 – 202 images
Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 – 87 images
Fujifilm 50-140mm f/2.8 – 13 images
Fujifilm X100VI – 19 images
I always like to review these numbers after a trip as it just helps me when my brain runs away and starts thinking about what the best lenses for travel photography really are and my preferred focal length. Here it’s quite clear to see that the majority of images were taken between 17mm and 40mm with perhaps 35mm nudging it in terms of my favourite. I’m sure one day this will help when I decide to travel with one lens only.
In terms of the colours captured within the images, they are all shot with my ‘Summer Negative‘ Fujifilm recipe (which I find just gets better and better the more I use it and the more of my travels I capture with it) with my standard finishing touches applied in Lightroom.
MY FAVOURITE HAMBURG PHOTOGRAPHS
ALL THE PHOTOS
A DAY TRIP TO SCHWERIN
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