Kings Pine #1, Ancient White Pine – Fine Art Color Print from 4×5 Film

“Kings Pine #1, Ancient White Pine”, in the New Hampshire’s White Mountains, is offered as a custom fine art color photographic print, signed and numbered with a certificate of authenticity.

I photographed this subject in Kodak E100SW 4×5 transparency film, to capture the detail and subtle pastel color palette and deep contrast of the deep bark fissures in this massive old growth tree.

For full disclaimer, I don’t actually know if this massive White Pine was ever marker with “The King’s Broad Arrow”, a marking made to “claim” a tall, old White Pine tree as the King of England’s property, but she could have been. These marked trees were to be used as Masts for the ships of the Royal Navy. (Read more about the kings pines HERE and HERE)

I first heard of the King’s Pines in 1995 and found it so intriguing, I spent much time in the New England woods in the hopes of finding any left standing. I followed rumors, legends and vague writings in a couple of books about some that had been located. I followed, as best I could, one of these vague descriptions into a certain section within the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 1997. The story was that a few of the King’s Pines did still stand on a mountain slope there but many had been damaged in mid and late 1940’s hurricanes. I had been in the area without success a couple of times but took a slightly different bushwhack this time, struggling through the underbrush with a 50lb pack containing my camera, lenses, meter, tripod, film holders etcetera. The film days were really difficult in so many ways.

After and hour or so and a laborious climb, the forest floor began to change, becoming softer and mossy and the geography leveled out. I first began to notice massive deeply fissured silvery stumps scattered among the new growth of spruce and birch trees and then before me was the largest tree trunk and root system I had seen anywhere in the Eastern US. There among several giant trunks was the White Pine tree captured in this image. It had been violently snapped in two perhaps seventy five feet in the air, but was still living. The tree was intact high up and still had a canopy but was shedding smaller live branches and still green needles. The other massive trees in that small area of level ground had also been snapped at various levels but the White Pine before me was the most impressive.

This tree was indeed massive, wider than any I have seen to this day. The crevices in the silvery bark were deep and the tree looked like no other I had seen. I was convinced that I had stumbled upon the King’s Pines that had suffered damage from those two New England hurricanes. There were no camera phones at that time, only a cumbersome 4×5 view camera to document this ancient White Pine. It had to be at least eight feet in diameter at chest height, much wider at the base, and it was certainly the oldest White Pine that I have ever seen personally. To provide scale, the individual “plates” of weathered bark were actually wider than any surrounding new growth tree. King’s Pine? I don’t know for sure, but she was to me in that dwindling afternoon mountain light. Read more about Eastern US Old Growth Forests.

This limited Edition Print will be Signed and Numbered. Pricing includes the print only with a white border and includes free shipping unless otherwise noted. This Print Requires Framing (see detailed info below).