Extraordinary full-length shot of the 'President': this 3,200-year-old tree is so huge it took 126 photos to show it all

• Tree in Nevada's Sequoia National Park is 3,200 years old and 247 feet tall
• National Geographic captured full-length shot using innovative technique
• Judged on mass, the 'President' is 'likely the biggest' tree on the planet

By KATE LYONS

Meet the ‘President’.

The giant sequoia tree in Nevada’s Sequoia National Park is 3,200 years old, has 2 billion leaves and stands 247 feet (74 metres) tall.

The portrait of the giant tree, taken by National Geographic, is actually a mosaic, made up of 126 photographs in order to capture the stunning full-length shot.

The President is by no means the tallest tree in the world – that honour goes to a California redwood, which stands 379 feet (116 metres) tall – but in terms of mass, it is one of the largest.

‘We know that there are trees that have bigger trunks, but when you add up all of the wood beside the main trunk – all of the limbs, all of the branches, all of the bio-mass above the ground – this tree is likely the biggest,’ said Steve Sillett from Humboldt State University.

The stunning shot of the tree was featured as a five page fold-out in the December 2012 edition of National Geographic.

‘The reason we want to do these portraits – people get it. When they see the tree in its totality without distortion, they gasp,’ said photographer Michael Nichols.

The photographic team captured the pictures using an innovative rigging technique, which was pioneered by Mr Nichols in 2009, when created an 84-image composite of a 300-foot-tall redwood tree.

Giant sequoias live at high elevations and can endure cold, heavy snow and even lightning strikes. They grow in bulk and not as high as coast redwoods.