Imagine if you will, taking a picture of a tree. Get every branch from the base to the tip in the picture.
Sounds easy, right?
Now imagine that the tree is 3,200 years old, 247 feet tall, has two billion needles and is continuing to grow even as you look at it. All of a sudden, that little iPhone you’ve got in your pocket just isn’t going to cut it.
The Giant Sequoias only grow in Northern California, and they only grow in one tiny little area: the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. One of the oldest and largest trees growing there is the President. It’s 247 feet tall, sports a 27 foot diameter trunk (which is svelte compared to two of other local trees), and has the largest crown of any of the Giant Sequoias in the grove.
So how hard can it be to take a picture of a tree? It’s not like it’s going to wander off or anything, right? Well, this particular tree is so massive that it’s never been photographed in it’s entirety. Ever.
A team of climbers, composters, and technicians from National Geographic Magazine and Humboldt State University came together to take 126 pictures of the massive tree (it adds a cubic meter of wood to it’s mass every year!) and build a mosaic of this beautiful giant.
The President is located in the Giant Forest Grove of Sequoia National Park just east of Visalia, California. While not the tallest giant sequoia tree in the world, nor the widest, it does have the distinction of being the third largest tree in the world, and the only Giant Sequoia to be completely captured in one image. In 1932 the tree was named “President” in honor of President Warren G. Harding. Other notable trees located near the President include Chief Sequoyah (27th largest giant sequoia in the world) and the Congress Grove – two dense (no pun intended, I’m sure) stands of medium sized sequoias that represent the House and the Senate.
You can watch a video of the photography session HERE.
You can read the article HERE.
You can get a large format print of the image HERE.