We were lucky enough to be in Hamburg this past weekend so I had plenty of opportunities to make use of the wild card Beth gave us for You Capture topic this week.

This gate is on the Rathaus in Hamburg and I just think it’s incredibly beautiful and ornate.

This was one of the many MANY handmade kites displayed as part of the Chinese Festival. We actually thought about bringing one home with us…but definitely not this guy. He was a bit scary. And getting one of these in our luggage definitely have turned some heads.

The following was the side of the Chilehaus…a building which is just full of incredible architectural points. I just love the contrast of the windows with the dark bricks…and of course the cool stepped bricks too.

I’m oh so thankful for the free photoshop actions that Ree of Pioneer Woman fame shared a while back. Otherwise it might take a whole lot longer to get some of these shots just the way I want them. This statue was at the oh so cool St Nikolai church, and I think that after editing, it’s almost like he’s a real person sitting there after the bombs went off.

But back to lighter subjects, there was also a really random occurrence which was running into a starship trooper and two other Star Wars characters. Forgive me for not knowing exactly what the others do. I have not seen the movies in years and I’m just not hip like that. But you should have seen us flocking to them on the street, cameras all in their faces. 🙂 As you might notice from the woman’s face, I think that’s partially what they were there for.

This was taken on a bridge going from the old part of Hamburg going into the new harbor area. Not sure if it was really old or just made to look out but I knew I had to photograph it.

Here’s a final shot from the same bridge above. It must have been put there just for us to photograph. And when I started taking shots of it, everyone else looked down at the bridge and whipped out their cameras too. It was as if no one noticed it until I started getting all intimate with it. So many great elements on it!

The following two photos are from inside our hotel which was just gorgeous. They had managed to mix modern furniture with a funky old gas building…and it just had a classic and warm feeling to it. As walk through the front door, this little window allows you to peek into their bar and lounge. Absolutely charming.

And if we could have figured out how to get this huge lamp into our luggage, it so would have been home with us. We later found out it runs about €2800 (without 19% VAT) soooo we definitely should have tried to snag this one. But how cool is that lamp?

I’ll leave you will the cutest little boat house or gazebo I’ve ever seen…and I adore the thatch roof. Unfortunately, those roofs will probably one day never been seen again. They are wildly energy efficient but unfortunately rather difficult to build properly and no one really seems to want to learn the trade anymore. So if someone wants to teach me how to do this, I would adore that! 🙂

Can’t wait to see what Beth has in store for us next week…and I sure was glad I got to use my free reign for photos in Hamburg!