Although I talked about the fountain from Cologne yesterday, the main tourist attraction in Cologne is really their enormous Gothic cathedral. So it was to be expected that the cathedral would factor into the standard postcard shot from Cologne.

However, as we walked by postcard stands in town, it was interesting to note that the most common postcard shot is taken from across the Rhine River, on the other side of the distinctive green metal Hohenzollern bridge. The standard postcard scene includes the cathedral,  the bridge and a bit more of the city skyline. So, one morning we walked across the bridge in order for me to see the postcard scene of Cologne spread out before me.

However, on the morning we made that crossing, the weather was totally clouded over, threatening to rain (which it did later in the day, actually, in a huge series of storms). The weather held out long enough for me to take my photo, though, but the overall scene — both in person and in the resulting photo — was rather flat.

Today, in looking at the photo on my computer, it occurred to me that many of the postcards we saw showed this scene at night, with colorful lights reflected in the water. That gave me an idea: I decided to add a bit of color to one of my photos to jazz it up a bit in different ways. So what I offer today is not quite the standard postcard shot from Cologne … but almost.

See what you think.