Some places — and activities — have a way of making you feel really, really small.

***Copyrighted Material: The images below are copyrighted against unauthorized use. We were granted special permission to feature them in this Matador photo essay. Please visit the photographer links for licensing conditions for each photo.***

1. Uluru, Australia
The massive rock — a.k.a. Ayers Rock — is climbed by 250 every day, despite pleas from local indigenous groups to refrain from doing so.
Photo: Chris Harrison

2. Diving with whale sharks
The whale shark is the world’s largest fish species and can grow to be longer than 40 feet. This shot was taken off Christmas Island, Australia, in January 2005.
Photo: Rob Hughes

3. Cotopaxi, Ecuador
This volcano just south of Quito reaches an elevation of 5,897m (19,347ft) — often higher than the clouds.
Photo: david_rombaut

4. Redwood country, California
Taken in Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, this picture shows me (in red) straining my neck next to the Stout Tree.
Photo: Aya Padron

5. Sea Kayaking, solo
Big water, small boat. Shot taken walking the Southwest Coast Path from Land’s End to Plymouth, England.
Photo: nixwilliams

6. Great Ocean Road, Australia
The coast along one of the world’s most spectacular roads is also good for a walk.
Photo: Andrew Ferrier

7. Ponoras Cave, Romania
Things can get large underground too. Here, spelunkers from CSA explore “Mammoth Hall” in Romania’s Transylvania region. The light trail was produced by a fast-moving caver with a headlamp.
Photo: Bela Nagy

8. Snowfields, Rocky Mountains
This is no photoshop. It’s Matador senior editor David Miller getting in some late-season turns in Rocky Mountain National Park. Read about it in The Dharma Shack Chronicles.
Photo: David Miller

9. Desert, southern Peru
Sand accumulates into massive dunes in one of the driest deserts on Earth. Notice the city of Ica, Peru, in the distance — also dwarfed.
Photo: guilherme cecílio

10. Camping under the stars
So many stars. And camping the best way to let them overwhelm you. This shot was taken near Maupin, Oregon.
Photo: Ben Canales

11. Mount Bromo, Indonesia
This very active Javanese volcano attracts lots of tiny visitors up to its steaming rim.
Photo: Jiang

12. Yosemite National Park, California
That’s me again, this time feeling very small (and a little dizzy) at the top of Half Dome. Notice the gloves — not a fashion statement, but what you use to pull yourself up the cables on the final ascent.
Photo: Aya Padron

13. Antarctica
Travelers to Antarctica report losing all sense of distance — the geographic scale is so immense and the ice fields so flat and white. This is Lake Fryxell.
Photo: Nicolas Arthur Salava

14. Preikestolen, Norway
This rock has a great view of Lysefjorden and is a good place to get close to the edge.
Photo: Sonya Kanelstrand

15. Mont Blanc, France
Europe’s tallest mountain tops out at 4,810m (15,782ft) and sits in one of The 6 Best Starter Ranges for Mountaineering.
Photo: Sarah Brigden

16. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This salt plain is the world’s largest and traps rainwater during wet winter months, creating a tripped-out sky mirror. Find out how to get there.
Photo: Carlos Díaz

17. On a cliff ascent
This one happens to be the curved limestone face of Malham Cove, North Yorkshire, England.
Photo: Dubris

18. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
The majority of the falls lies in Argentina, but according to the photographer, “the great thing about the Brazilian side of Iguazu is that there are no limits on taking pictures at any time of day….(unlike the Argentinian side).”
Photo: SF Brit

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Community Connection

Where have you felt most dwarfed by nature? Share your story (and a link to a photo if you have one) in the comments.

If you haven’t watched it yet, install Google Chrome, go to thewildernessdowntown.com, and type in your childhood address. The project uses Street View to harvest custom imagery to create a unique viewing experience for each user, but be warned – it’s very processor-intensive. It’s an impressive technical feat, but more interesting is how emotionally powerful it is, and how willing we were to wait out the long loading time to watch it.

The Art Directors at Good Housekeeping, unlike those at Abysmal Housekeeping, have no problem switching out of formal western modes of imagery into more expressive, interpretive modes. We salute this adventurous approach to semiotic discourse and wish them well in their future career choices.

Thanks to Kristine!

fast food

McDonald’s Hamburgers: Almost Entirely Indestructible

• 8/26/10 at 6:25 PM
• Comment 1Comment Comments

Left: Day 1. Right: Day 137. Terrifying.Photo: Courtesy Sally Davies/Refinery 29

In the name of both art and science, New York photographer Sally Davies decided to buy a hamburger happy meal from McDonald’s, set it out on a table, and take a picture of it every day until it disintegrated. That was 137 days ago and the end is nowhere near: The fries look as fresh as the day they came out of the fryer, and the burger — minus a little patty shrinkage — is virtually unchanged. Davies plans to keep going with the project until something happens, but she’d better be ready for a long haul: A twelve-year-old McD’s burger surfaced a few years ago looking shockingly well-preserved. If you find yourself in possession of a fast-food hamburger and eating it (or trashing it) isn’t an option, there’s always the scientific method. Take a cue from University of Nottingham chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff (who, we must note, has fantastic hair) and dunk the whole thing in a vat of hydrochloric acid, as demonstrated in the following video:

Why We’re Scared of Happy Meals [Refinery 29]
Cheeseburger in Acid [Periodic Table of Videos]

I saw these posters on Unplggd and they made me laugh. They were designed by a Sao Paulo ad agency called Moma. Won’t it be fun to be grandmas and grandpas and see vintage ads for things like the iPhone and feel nostalgic?

P.S. — Thank you for all the internet love yesterday (here on Design Mom, on twitter and on facebook) — I’m still grinning ear to ear!

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