National Geographic sent renown wildlife photographer Michael Nichols to spend an entire year in California’s redwood forest. His mission: capture the majestic nature of some of the world’s tallest and oldest trees in photographs. Though this sounds pretty straightforward (take pictures of trees for a year, how hard could that be?), the grand challenges that it presented were immense. Namely, Nichols spent a great deal of time trying to devise a plan to take a picture of a redwood in a way that would do it justice. These trees are massive, to say the very least, and to capture a 1,500 year old, 300 foot tree is something few have attempted.
Eventually, Nichols crafted a robotic camera that would do the job. With three cameras, a team of scientists, a robotic dolly, a gyroscope, an 83-photo composite and a lot of patience, he was able to create this:
Stunning! Here is a short video that explains how he made it.
You can find this photograph (in form of a huge fold-out in the October issue of National Geographic magazine. And if you are hungry for some incredible facts about redwoods, check out their webpage here!
(via npr via Make: Online)
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