Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 T.Spark, Germany (I)

JUNE 2012 – A silver metallic Alfa Romeo 156 sedan stands on a meadow near Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com

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The story behind the image

Personal mobility has been important for my family and me as long as I can remember. It provides a sense of freedom, of being able to conveniently go where I want when I want. So, yes, I do have a thing for cars. Having said that, I am not a car fetishist by any means. I just like them.

And I like them even more when they look as good as my Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 T.Spark 16V which I had owned since 2000. It had been not just a great looking car, but a great car. Quite reliable, very comfortable, and affordable. It could go very fast, thanks to its light weight and strong 150 HP engine, and it had always been a real joy to drive it.

But in summer 2012, while Petra was pregnant with Clara, I sensed it was soon time to say ‘Goodbye’ to the 156. I realized that its rather small trunk would not be sufficient to take up all the luggage of two parents and a kid. In preparation for the sales listing, and for my personal archive, I drove to the Ammersee area to find a nice spot for taking a number of photos of the 156.

The focal length of 70 mm, the 1.3x crop factor of the EOS 1D Mark IV, and the low position were the foundation for a good shot. Combined with the soft sunlight this resulted in a very nice photo of the car. While it’s certainly not the natural habitat of a 156, I still like the location. The gentle hills and trees in the background remind me of Tuscany in Italy.

In April 2013 we finally replaced the 156 with an Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon. That car had always been an object of (my) desire but I had never been able to convince Petra to really go for it. Until Clara was born and the 156 simply got too small.

P.S.: In the end, the 156 had logged roughly 143,000 kilometers from August 2000 to April 2013 with just very few issues.

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The high resolution image

Capture Date & Time	21-JUN-2012, 14:41
Location	Near Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany
Camera	Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens	Canon EF 24-70 mm 2.8 L USM
ISO	100
Exposure	1/640 sec at f/5.6
Digital Image Source Format	Canon Camera Raw (CR2)
Edited Image Format	JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB
Edited Image Dimensions	4896 x 2501 Pixels
Copyright	© by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com