The current issue of National Geographic features a huge, fold-out portrait of a 1,500 year old, 300 foot tall Redwood tree. It’s an actual portrait, too – not something that looks like it was taken from toddler-level. So how’d the photographer do it? He built a rig that contained three high-end (Canon) cameras, attached the rig to a vertical dolly, and came up with a total of 83 individual photos that were stitched together in a mosaic to make one ginormous portrait.

Here’s the rig:

Those six devices to either side of the cameras are Pocket Wizard Plus IIs – wireless camera

and flash triggers that have a range of about 1600 feet.

Here’s the completed photo:

And here’s a video of how it was done:

Neat!

Source: NPR – Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever

These photos were taken on my flight from Dallas to San Francisco in March. A very nice lawyer was sitting next to me. I clicked away for a while before she said, “Your job looks a lot more fun than mine!” After watching her spend the flight using her highlighter on stacks of rather uninspiring material, I had to acknowledge that she spoke the truth. (Not that I get paid to take pictures from an airplane or anything, whereas I am certain her hours on that plane were billable.)

If someone were to pay me to take pictures from a plane, I hope they would provide me with a cleaner window than what I got that day. I’d be open to extra peanuts as well, and the whole can of apple juice instead of just the cup.