Over the years. I’ve read a lot of articles and image captions, where people claimed “photos cannot do justice for the redwoods”. The comments  often referred to photos falling-short of conveying size.  It may be that most of them do not know how to compose that type of image. But I realized that the bigger the redwood is, the harder can be to take-in the entire size. I recall my first visit to one of the 10 largest coast redwoods. I did not  realize  it was a titan tree, because walking nearby around it, I could  see about one quarter  circumference. What photos can’t convey is the “feel” of the redwood forest; the scents or feeling you  get standing in a grove.

But to convey size, a photo can do more justice than trying to explain it. Consider the composite image National Geographic printed  October 2009. The view that the photographer captured was a sight  none of the research climbers could ever see. The climbers could see  pieces  each climb. But never that much in one view.  Especially with a human for scale.

If you photograph with a person for scale and want to accurately convey a redwood’s size, ask them to stand half way back at the side of the trunk. Not behind it and not in front of it. Just mid-way.

Chris Atkins by a Coast Redwood