MarkdV
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Dear All,
Firstly thanks to everyone for your kind words about the first set of photos from Colmar. The ones with the 105mm f2.5 were very easy, leave lens wide open, point at something vaguely interesting, focus and push shutter. Let this amazing lens make some stunning bokeh and out of focus areas and enjoy the result.
My wife knew I has snuck this new lens in the house just by looking at the results on my computer commenting that they seemed really sharp and with outstanding colours (I thought I'd done a great job getting it in without her noticing).
These ones are with the 28mm series E and although it's a great little lens it's not the 105 by any stretch of the imagination. Still the results are nice and I hope that you enjoy them.
A little more on Colmar. As mentioned the main attraction of the town is the old historical centre and the well preserved "Little Venice". Although Colmar did see some action in WWII thankfully it avoided the massive damage that destroyed many other historical towns which were then rebuilt in that lovely fashion of 1950's and 1960's concrete. The war did leave some impact though, the American army build in 3 days a bridge to cross the river Lauch (translated as Leek in English - the name comes as it was used by farmers to bring Leeks to market). This "Temporary bridge" is still in use today for modern traffic - ah, back when things were made to last.
The old houses are all different colours and it is law that your house cannot be the same colour as your neighbour's house. Traditionally the colours represented your profession (White for Tanner, green for farmer, red for butcher etc), but in a part of Colmar there were only 2 colours. Red for Catholics and Blue for Protestants - those well renowned friends.
Built into the houses by the supporting beams were various symbols. The main ones were a cross to represent wealth and the diamond to represent fertility. If there was an eligible unmarried maiden in the house then your shutters would have a small love-heart cut out of them. When she got married you changed these to a diamond to pray that she would be fertile and have a large family (Sorry ladies, that's the extent of your career progression in those days. Babies and running the house and finances).
Of course you cannot go to France without the traditional stereotypical French breakfast of Croissant and coffee, although as I don't like coffee I settled for a hot chocolate instead. We found a great cafe run by an old woman who was there in the morning when we had breakfast and was there when we went past after a hearty dinner at 10pm. The pastries were to die for there so it would have been rude not to finish with a tarte citroen and chocolate eclair.
Sorry for the long winded explanation, I hope that you find the photos interesting.
Breakfast
The cafe
The houses of Colmar - note the colours and the shapes of the wood
The streets of Colmar
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Again with the 50-135 wide open.
