A sunset view of Tuscson, from the foothills of Mt. Lemmon.
In our first trip to Tuscon, my then-girlfriend now-wife and I were on a search for a place to watch the sunset. We settled on a pullout not far down the road up Mt. Lemmon, in the Coronado National Forest. This far down Mt. Lemmon is still in the Sonoran desert biome.
I had to wander a little off of the parking lot to set this shot up. The foreground silhouette saguaro is occulting the very bright sunset.
This was likely processed in a mix of Nikon Capture NX (2?) and Adobe Photoshop, as it was pre-Lightroom for me. I submitted it to SmugMug’s Last Photographer Standing contest and it got me into the next round.
I have a giant print of this hanging in my living room and it has been used as wallpaper on my phone. It is probably the first, best photo that I have ever taken.
In 2016, I returned to Tucson for a 3rd time and we returned to this spot. I was unable to find this same view. It is possible that I missed it, but the area has deteriorated some and it may be that one of these giant saguaro’s is no longer standing.
-rjh
