At first glance, this picture may not seem very special. Obviously, somebody is standing on a rocky ledge overlooking a pristine lake, right? Maybe somewhere with a little elevation like Montana, Colorado, or Alaska.
Would you have guessed the north woods of Minnesota? That is, after all, where this picture was taken. What you might not have realized at first glance is that this particular picture is a very sneaky picture. It's tricking you.
In reality, the rocky ledge this person appears to be standing on is actually a sand mountain built by my uncle.
"What, what," you might say, "then surely you must have found a gnome to pose for the picture?"
No, that's my sister. She's just standing on the dock about thirty yards away.
If you've watched any of the Lord of the Rings films, you've already been duped by this particular trick. It's a technique called "forced perspective" which is used to make objects appear larger or smaller than their actual size by manipulating the vantage point of the camera to distort the apparent distances between relative objects.
It's the oldest trick in the book, but as someone who has grown up having known little else than digital effects and computer generated imagery, I find that in-camera optical illusions such as these never fail to fascinate me.