Doomed Hemlocks #9 – Museum Quality Color Print from 4×5 transparency

“Doomed Hemlock #9 in B&W” is offered as a custom fine art black and white photographic print, signed and numbered with a certificate of authenticity. This image was captured before the Ancient Old Growth Eastern Hemlocks in Central PA were decimated.

I captured this image in 4×5 transparency sheet film with an Ebony view camera and Rodenstock Sironar S 180mm lens in the Detweiler Run Natural Area of Rothrock State Forest, Pennsylvania.

This image was captured one of my first visits to this true virgin old growth forest. These magical small remnants of the vast Eastern Old Growth Forests were a transformational experience and set me on my quest to search out and photograph true Eastern US Old Growth Forests for my “Tree Portraits” series.

This image of a majestic old Hemlock was a challenge. To capture this image, I had to lay on my back on the forest floor for perhaps an hour and a half with the tripod and upside-down field camera above me. Everything was barely stable on only two tripod legs with the camera against my backpack. The entire time there, face up and “trapped” on the soft bed of the old growth forest, I was listening carefully and thinking about the very large and slightly perturbed Black Bear that had visited me on two previous occasions. The entire process was unnerving and challenging.

Focusing on the ground glass and making necessary tilt adjustments was only half the challenge in capturing this subject. Being careful to not move anything, I loaded each film holder into the camera, opened them by feel, peaked around the precarious set up above me and awaited calm. When the branches seemed to briefly remain still, I captured this color image and then a black and white in the hopes that nothing moved during the 4-second-long exposures. I felt quite lucky when looking for sharpness through my loupe on the light table after I developed this transparency and a B&W. This turned out to be a successful tree portrait session but very unrepeatable with 4×5 film. Sadly, this beautiful 500 year-old tree has since succumbed to the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, but here is her color portrait.

This limited Edition Print will be Signed and Numbered. Price is for the print only with a white border (click image to see example for largest sized print) and includes free shipping. Print requires framing and glazing (glass or acrylic) though no mat board will be required.