Blue Descent

A rather short post today, as life events this week are restricting my free time. I did, however, want to keep my weekly streak alive and publish an image for those of you following this thread.

This is a staircase in Hamburg. It is in the Laeiszhof building, one of the many historical buildings in the city. It was the color that first caught my attention. I find something soothing about blue in photographs. This may be the reason I like capturing landscapes and cityscapes in the “blue hour”. I don’t think that I have ever seen a blue staircase before. I suspect others exist, but this was a first for me. Without the blue, I am not sure I would have even taken a photo of this staircase. I have seen many others staircases that are more interesting, but the border of blue made it unique in my eyes. I hope you agree. 

Until next week, when I hope to have a bit more time to share an image and a story…

Speicherstadt

The Speicherstadt (translated as City of Warehouses) is not your ordinary warehouse district. It is actually the largest contiguous warehouse complex in the world and an amazing site to explore. Built in 1883 near the main port of Hamburg, the area consists of 17 Gothic style warehouses featuring numerous gables and turrets that are all connected by canals, as well as by land. Truly an interesting place! In July 2015, the area was awarded the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site

While it is wonderful to explore during the day, it takes on almost a fairytale atmosphere at night. The red brick façades, multiple bridges and circular turrets are illuminated by spotlights and create shimmering reflections in the canals. 

It had just started raining when I arrived at this bridge over the Wandrahmsfleet canal. As you can imagine, it is a popular spot for photographers, but I was the only one there on this night. The scene and the colors were just fantastic. The golden lights were lit on most of the turrets and reflections were everywhere in the water. The light even reflected off of the low clouds overhead, casting a purple hue and making it a little more of a dreamy scene…well worth getting a little wet while taking this image. 

Exit the Frame - Hamburg

While exploring around the port of Hamburg, I walked past this modern building with an open atrium and a floor to ceiling glass wall. Being a fan of architecture, I walked in just to take a look around and immediately gravitated to the symmetry of the grid pattern on the wall and how it framed the port scene outside.

It is rare to have such straight lines in a landscape image and capturing them without any distortion took some time to compose. It was a unique scene…the cranes in the middle were perfectly framed by the door, the clouds were dramatic & moving quickly across the sky and the grid pattern, well, was just cool! That said, it was still a bit sterile…it needed a subject…and then a man walked by, and that made all the difference.

The Blue Underground

After a few outdoor images the past several weeks, I wanted to get back inside to another one of my favorite U-Bahn stations in Hamburg, Germany. It is Überseequartier, located in the HafenCity district.

It is relatively new, being completed in 2012, and sits near the end of the U4 line...so there are (currently) relatively few people here at any one time. In fact, I was the only one here for about a 5 minute span. The walls and ceiling are covered in blue tiles that reflect the white lights placed in the walls. It is a very modern design with various lines, shapes and angles that I love in architectural photography. And, yes, it is that clean! 

If you make it here, I suggest you also visit the HafenCity Universität station one further stop down the line. It was featured in a post last month. In case you missed it, you can see that image here.

Hafen City - Hamburg, Germany

Since arriving in Germany, I have acquired an affinity for photographing the modern U-Bahn Stations here. I admire the way the Germans have designed their newest stations to be works of art, while also being the most efficient way to travel around their cities. Hafen City station is a perfect example of this and a very unique underground station in Hamburg. The train station is constantly changing its colors, lights alternating between red, blue, orange and green. On weekends people line up just to see the light show here accompanied by the classical music of Bach, Verdi & Brahms. I witnessed the light show and it is impressive…especially considering it is a subway station!