Tilt Shift Photography

I was doing a bit of browsing around the net last night and came across the websites of a bunch of different type of artists...some photographers, a lot of installation artists, and some performance artists. As I was hopping around, I came across this photo from the exhibit Smallplanet. The photographer is Naoki Honjo.

I had never seen a photograph like this before - the tiny objects made the the photograph look as if it were straight out of a storybook! After doing a bit of research, I found out that Naoki Honjo (the photographer) uses a photography technique called Tilt-Shift Photography. This may be a technique very familiar to most photographers, but it was definitely new to me! If you're curious, here is how it works:

"A tilt-shift lens allows the photographer very exacting control over the
depth-of-field in an image, much more than any regular lens could provide.
Focus can be restricted to a single, narrow band, with everything else
rapidly blurring away. This distorts the appearance and makes the eye think
that distances are a lot smaller than they typically are. When applied to a
large scene like a city or a museum, everything appears miniature. " (Cheapshooter.com)

The picture that results from this technique is truly incredible. You must look below and check out some of the links to examples of this work. I promise that you won't be disappointed!

Vincent LaForet Slideshow
Olivo Barbieri ModelWorld
It's A Small World After All