Season 1 Recap

My beginning in blogging was a product of a warm and sunny summer morning. I sat down on the balcony and just wrote for some hours and in the end I got the ten first posts finished. But of course there were some tweaks because of the order and stuff. After that headstart there where several evenings I spent on the balcony bringing up concepts for series and the blog itself. My girlfriend got annoyed when I asked her over and over again if this or that would work out but she got her payback.

I tried to get three post a week done but it only worked out for two weeks or so until I set back to two posts and that still works out perfectly. Also I tried to fit the series in the schedule without missing all the latest news I wanted to cover and now ended up with actually two monthly series and a lot of more or less instant content.

It was great to get out once a week, shooting pictures for the Board and Bike Spots. In general I fell in love with photography and even bought my first own camera. And Hamburg is a great city to get started with photography: modern and classic, urban and landscape.

That is my recap of my first six months of blogging with now finally many more to come.


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Board Vibes - Season 2

It's been a long time, eh?

But today I'm back with new motivation, topics and a huge load of news. Of course there were other reasons besides procrastination  for me to stop writing. But those deserve an extra post. Also, there are two more winter themed posts in queue and then, finally, I am personally done with this season.

Following up on Saturday, there will be a roundup of "Season 1" of Board Vibes. I'll just briefly go over the highlights and developments made in those six months. Also there are two spots - one for the board, one for bike - that I had planned since early fall last year that might finally get live.

That's all updated so far, so see you on Saturday.


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In Pictures - Longboarding Together

My fourth post ever was about why it is so great to get together with people when longboaring. This here is a little follow up of pictures I found on Pinterest that really express the message I had in that post.

Each of these pictures tells a story of friends getting out together and searching for the thrill and fun of longboarding. Of course they all need a long road ahead - feeling the freedom and stuff. So beside that cliche and the fact that none of them was a real situation, I really like how they look and have different styles. One is dark and full of tension, another one showing the party going on on the road and one spreading pure summer and very happy and adventurous vibes.

However, I just wanted to show you these few pictures to stay motivated for longboarding - summer isn't even that far away! I'm already planning for new adventures and I might also buy a new board. But I will surely update you about anything exciting as it happens. Protect your spots and keep exploring!


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One Day In Hamburg - Christmas Time

One thing that's perfect in Hamburg in December is all the bright Christmas decoration that is spread all over the city. This here is just a tiny piece of it spread over maybe half a mile through the city. But I had a really good time trying out some stuff with the town hall and how it was lit from below and the clouds hushing by.

The scale of Christmas trees.

Love how this picture turned out with really warm colors..

While this one is really moody, especially the dark top.

A little too bright but I love how the buildings pops out from the background.

I like how the seagull sneaked in on this one.

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Chasing The Sun

One of the things I hate about fall and winter is how little light we get throughout the day. Especially if your photo- and videography is only a hobby - measured by the time you have available for it - it is hard to get ready for a shoot before the sun goes down. And we still have one and a half months left until we have the shortest day of the year. I'm stunned every single year again.

Like really stunned: Once I realize that it's happening I can't find the motivation to get out and shooting. It just seems like I won't even find anything before it get's dark again. Yesterday I was on my way home around 4 pm and guess what I saw: Golden Hour! But of course I couldn't carry my camera around all day - also I didn't even think that it would become such a nice day. But let's not get too depressed because of that - here are some pictures I collected this summer.

Visual Vibes - He Nailed It

Do you remember Ben Brown from three months ago? Not that it was the only time I mentioned him, but it was the last time that he released one of his Visual Vibes videos. So guess what happened this week: Buffer Festival in Toronto, Canada. A festival bringing content creators from YouTube to theaters all over Toronto. Many more or less famous YouTubers showed their latest creations and milestones and gave a little background information to each of the videos. Also pretty much everyone had a meetup after the screening where as many of the fans as possible got the opportunity to take pictures and get their questions answered.



So, this is Ben's latest masterpiece: The Canada Visual Vibes. Shot on his sponsored trip through Canada two months ago he captured the amazing wildlife and breathtaking views of mountains and ice-cold blue-water lakes that are spread all over the country. The editing took it's time (also because of the Seven Swims where he produced seven awesome videos for Lewis Pugh) but it turned out wonderful. I don't know what it is like if you don't know about the adventures he had in Canada, because for me it is also a awesome recap of all the things he did with Steve Booker and all the other people on the trip.

So whether you want to see what Canada might be holding for you or just like awesome film making you should definitely take a look at this video and subscribe to Ben for daily vlogs and travelling Visual Vibes.


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Now On Pinterest

Great news! Board Vibes is now on Pinterest, a awesome way to collect all kinds of awesome ideas, inspiration and products you love on a several virtual pin boards. For the beginning I created three collections for you:

 -- Board Ideas.  A collection of  mostly DIY ideas all about your longboard. Wall mounts, cookies, shelves. But this is still the smallest pin board.

-- Awesome Decks. While going through all kinds of longboards, I found some really awesome decks I want to show you. Mostly these are Landyachtz and Arbor boards with some pretty awesome photo paints.

-- Board Vibes. Well, that's what it's all about, right? Although this is partly a collection of hot girls on boards - or girls that are hot because they're on boards - I tried to capture this thing I just call Board Vibes as good as possible. But it is a fact that on something like Pinterest girls are more popular than cool guys, isn't it?

Visit Board Vibes's profile on Pinterest.

I added the "Pin It" button to the blog so you can pin the Board Vibes posts and pictures to your profile. Just hover your mouse over the picture you want to pin and the button will appear in the top left corner.

Just come back there every now and then to see what's new out there. You can also leave your ideas, pins and discoveries for me and maybe I'll add them to the boards.


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One Day in Hamburg - Alstervergnügen

So over the summer every year, there are some events that just affect the whole city. This here is a good example: the Alstervergnügen / the Alster pleasure. While the larger part of the lake Alster is home to all kinds of small boats, sports enthusiasts and all winter lovers when the ice is thick enough (that happes like once in five years and becomes a pretty big thing), the smaller part is home to many events and street festivals like the CSD and of course the Alstervergnügen, once in the summer months and once in the winter months. The pictures are one and a half months old now but is still was a pretty awesome day to spend in Hamburg.

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Alien Post - Snapseed

If you are on Instagram you know how hard it is to get a badly shot picture right so you won't embarrass yourself in front of you followers. The Android and iOS app Snapseed is a super easy and free way to edit your shots for Instagram or any other pictures taken with your DSLR and in-phone camera. You have more possibilities than with the in-app Instagram editor and also the modifiers are better, both usability and performance wise.



You can decide how far you want to go: from basics like brightness and saturation or getting the framing right to rather arty features like center focus and HDR scape. However, it is super intuitive and every time you try out a new modifier you get an overlay with all important information for controlling it.

You don't always have to bring big changes to the colors, sometimes you might want to make it look like it wasn't even edited at all. But some pictures just scream for a make over.

Or maybe the are some spots in the pic that are too dark. Just use the selective adjust to boost these spots and dark alleys become fun and colorful.

So if you want to edit your shots on the go or just don't want to spend money on Photoshop or an professional app, this is perfect for you. Sometimes I even sit there for one hour or more to get the picture to where I think it's finished. You don't even have to know what you want, just tweak it 'till you like it and spread it out to the internet.


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Smile, guys!

Over the past week there was only one thing to do when I was on a train. I searched for smiles - and hardly found them. But it is awesome how smiles can help you through the day. Well, at least they help me. Every time someone randomly smiles at me I get this awesome boost that gets me to reach my goals. But one of the best things about it is that you carry that feeling on to other people because you get that happy and friendly smile as well.

This sounds great but not likely at all. You really gotta look into a lot of people's faces to find someone that makes it work. You might think you look silly because you're smiling all day and you're the only one. But it's totally worth it. That feeling you get is just awesome.

Still there's one thing about me that doesn't seem to match with anybody else: I feel really close these people. And the moment we loose eye-contact I miss them because they are just so rare out on the street and I wanna know more people like that. At the very same moment I think that wouldn't work out because a very big part of this effect is that you don't know that person.

But now that I am thinking about this all day I guess that maybe I can't even make it work but it works on me. That's a terrible feeling. Still I have faith in the people and will go on being happy, smiling at everyone and trying to get them happy by that seemingly tiny task. And if you are with me tell me about it, get other people to go with us and don't let anybody bring you down.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Dove Elbe

So this week it pulled me out of the city once again, but not quite that far. Actually it was both, board and bike as my girlfriend was with me, but I was on the board so this counts as a board spot, I guess.

So we started right at at the east end of the marked path. Medium quality ground, some cars and a nice view. And if you take your time to look around instead of racing along you find these things that make you wonder about the story behind it. Like this little wooden boat there. I mean, when was the last time that you saw a boat completely made of wood out on the water? It must have been the for some years or maybe even decades.

And then, of course, there are just beautiful views of the river and nature. And you are mad because you have a 18-55mm lens only. But on the other hand, I like this shot of the river in the front at the cows at the riverside just chilling there.

Maybe I should explain: We were at the Dove Elbe, a arm of the Elbe of about 14 km length. At the place I live the Elbe is about three times as far away. This makes the Dove Elbe a good place if you want to chill out at the riverside.

We then finally arrived at the Hamburg Olympic Center of rowing that recently was the location for the rowing world cup. But I like it a lot more when everything is calm and there is a small boat driving by every now and then. Also, most people driving by are so nice and greeting each other - this is traffic how I like it.

That's it for today. As allways, keep exploring and protect your spots

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Hamburg Bike Spots - Out of the City

So today I revisited a place I've shown you before: The Zollenspieker Fährhaus. It's a hotel situated right next to the ferry station at the Elbe. I've been there on my morning bike ride, if you remember that. This is a post with only photos because this is just about the beauty of the area.

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My first very own camera - Nikon D5200

So I finally made it to get my own camera. Finally I can film while I am on the board, take the camera where ever I want and don't have to worry about people being paranoid about their pictures when they are moved from the memory card to a hard drive.

May I introduce: The Nikon D5200. As you might have read in the news section I bought it mostly because of the filming perks like 60 FPS shooting and exposure adjusting. The only other difference to the D5100 I used so far is that I now use the auto focus system of the lower upper-class D7100.

Also I love the updated interface. The graphics showing the exposure settings don't only tell you the current settings, but also give a relation to the overall spectrum of each of the settings by a visual feedback in the outer circles. By linking your most often used settings to the "My Menu", Nikon frees you of searching the currently important item in all of the different menus.

The kit I ordered comes with the AF-S DX 3,5-5,6 / 18-55mm VR II G lense. In addition to the camera itself there will follow a decent bag (currently I am aiming for the Case Logic SLRC-205) and a standard tripod. However, I will try to get as much out of the camera as possible with these so far rather limited possibilities.

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Boarding in the rain

Longboarding is so much fun as long as the sun shines or at least the floor is dry because rain is the natural enemy of every longboarder. Your griptape gets wet and dirty, your legs get sprinkled and your trucks and bearings don't like the water either.

Although you might actually stay on otherwise perfect skating-ground it is the equivalent to a bike or a car on wet grass and mud. Your wheels are a lot harder to turn and you have to be careful where to ride and step in case you want to use your shoes before the next day as the water gets whirled up onto your shoes and takes every little chunk of sand with it. Also you should be aware that you'll probably need a dry place outside for the board not to drop the water onto the floor inside (mostly a problem when living with your parents). You will need to clean up your board your shoes and your legs after the wheels spread the mud in little drops.
On the photo it luckily was only a short ride to the bus stop so it wasn't all that bad but only because I had luck with the bus arriving just then.

Hamburg Bike spots / Hamburg Longboard spots - Introduction

Today I'm introducing two new series featuring Hamburg's best spots for longboarding and biking on and off road. I will start right where I live and spread out over Hamburg by the time that I covered everything close by. Each post will include a set of photos -- maybe a video -- and a map that the spot is marked on.
The posts on longboard spots will be released every other week starting on the second of August. The posts on bike spots will fill up the weeks in between.

While it is great to blog about what's just happening at the moment I need a way to bring a regular pattern of topics to the blog. This gets me the feeling of a blog that is to be taken serious and helps me keeping myself motivated.

I'm looking forward to this new project and would like to hear if you're with me. Come back next Saturday to see the first beautiful cruising track starring trains, horses and a prison. 'Till then, ride safe and protect your spots.

Visual Vibes - Ben Brown Shoutout

Huge shoutout to Mr Ben Brown who did a awesome job on this video. In only one day of filming time he managed to capture this awesome adventure.



I've now been following Ben Brown for about a month now and it is amazing how inspiring he is. His daily Vlogs are like caffeine for me because he shows me that your day will be great - no matter what - if you just take your opportunities and live the adventure. A follow-up on this post will be out on Saturday, stay tuned.