Nature and Wildlife Photographer
Published in Arizona Highways Magazine, Arizona Highways Magazine's calendars, Arizona Desert Views Magazine's calendars, Nature Conservancy calendar, Images Arizona Magazine, and other publications.
Tam Ryan has lived in the Southwestern United States for over forty years. Her interests center on the region's unique attributes, especially its vast landscapes and bird wildlife. Tam Ryan's other interests include abstracts in nature, architecture, desert flora, and cacti.
It had rained most of the day on Saturday, April 9. By 4 p.m. there were some bits of blue sky popping around the storm clouds. I was at the movies with my neighbor at 2:45 p.m. and when we left there an hour later, it looked like the sun might come out enough to get a good shot of Superstition Mountain. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to this particular spot to see the sun come out and light up The Superstition Mountains!
From this point, we continued down the road so that I could get another view of the Superstition Mountains with The Elvis Memorial Chapel located at the Superstition Mountain Museum.
Elvis Memorial Chapel at Superstition Mountain Museum
Since there was just about an hour left of light before sunset, we drove to Goldfield Ghost Town. There are a multitude of interesting photo ops at this old western town and mine camp. Just after I parked the car, I saw a cowboy standing outside at the back of The Mammoth Saloon smoking a cigarette. Just below where he was, a horse was tied up to a wooden railing. Right out of the Old West, except for the car in the background and the telescope to the right of the cowboy!
Cowboy and Hitched Horse
While the cowboy was looking away, I moved a bit closer and took this close-up picture of him to capture his solitary mood.
In Deep Thought
It turned out to be an adventurous day after not know whether or not the rain would stop. The temperatures were very cool for this time of year, though my neighbor and I enjoyed it even more after realizing that within a week or two that we would be experiencing upper 80's to over 100 degree temperatures.
