The Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is an enormous living creature. It has the widest trunk among all the trees on Earth*. However, sequoias are not the tallest trees, but they are really tall, some specimens reach a height of 295 feet (90 meter). Giant Sequoias usually grow in dense groves, that makes difficult to photograph a single tree. This is the reason, that National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols had to use special techniques to create an image of the President tree, which is about 250 feet tall.
When I visited the Sequoia National Park last week to photograph Giant Sequoias, I didn’t have any special tool. Luckily, there is a small meadow on the top of a modest hill in the Giant Forest, where I could photograph a giant tree from a perfect angle. Fortunately, the sun illuminated the crown of the sequoia tree and a thin sunbeam came through the woods and beamed the ground relatively close to the tree. I asked my wife, Gabi to stand into the light to photograph her along with the Giant Sequoia to show how big this gorgeous tree is.
Gear: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 17-40mm F/4 lens, Tiffen polarizer, handheld
* Update (Dec 7, 2015):
New discoveries in Redwood National and State Parks moved the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) past Giant Sequoia for widest trunk.
2 Comments
Like how the bottom of the image becomes dark toward the bottom. Has a nice feel to it.
RE the redwoods, the Giant Sequoias do not have the widest trunks. Its actually Coast Redwood. My name should be linked. The page also covers the Mexico cypress, a multiple trunk tree some folks try to compare too.
Cheers,
MDV
Hi MDV,
I’m glad you like this photo and thanks for the info about the recent discoveries. I updated my post.
Gabor