I love the model train/toy look of the whole scene. Even if your images are not always the most amazing life changing shots (which is impossible), they still always have something that piques my interest.

I love the tilt lens effect... whenever I see pictures like that it makes everything seem like a toy model. I don't know why that is. I wouldn't feel that if everything was in focus. Great work!

Looks like a shot of miniature! Godzilla will be entering frame right!
You guys have seen this right?
h((p://www.lensbabies.com
(not sure if we can include active links or not...)

I'm not sure I always like the effect some of the tint lens produce, they can make a shot much more interesting.
You've focused in on a good spot.

photoshop =(

It looks so much like picture of modells you see at buildings sales office. The desaturation helps a lot as well. Very interesting picture.

Wow!!!
Amazing work! Beautiful view and fantastic tone. I love your photos, but this one just blown me away. To achieve this effect you play with the lens blur filter or do you simply use the blur brush?

Awesome! Love the location of the focused area, think it works really well in the photo. Must learn how to do this sort of thing in photoshop!

Cool pic, would be nice to see the un-photoshopped version for a comparision ;)

Wow, that is a great effect
It looks like a small miniture model af a cityscape.
Regards
Gustav

photobyte.blogspot.com

sorry this one doesnt do much for me.

Who's price range are they in? $2000 for the 90mm retail! wow

Im not sure i really like this shot, the road looks like an octopus tentacle and that makes me a little squimish. I'm guessing that the two hearts down to the righthand side of the pic are roofs and haven't been cut out of paper and stuck on the photo! which is how they appear.

I really love this effect. how do you do it in Photoshop? I'd really like to know.
Brilliant as ever.

amazing!

Excellent photo, Sam! It looks like a one of those models engineers/developers build when trying to show the public how a new highway will look in their neighbourhood.

Cheers,
Thomas

I saw a very similar effect in an issue of Azure a couple weeks ago. It's so cool how it makes the photo look like a scale model. A wonderful job Sam. I'm interested in how you did this in Photoshop.

This is perfect - just like a tilt lens - well done! This barely looks bigger than a tabletop, are you sure you'r not yankin' our chain here? :-)

Great use of the "toy effect"!

Good job! I never would have thought the original picture would have worked so well with this effect, usually I think of having a single object in focus (like my http://www.seemsartless.com/index.php?pic=425 or http://mute.rigent.com/index.php?ladat=2005-03-08 at 'Mute').

WOW! WOW! I know I said it twice, but I'm not retarded or a rainman, I just really love this picture!! I like the Schindlers list thing where the sign is green and everything else is black and white. I guess it means the sign is going to die really soon. Too bad. I also love the way it's clear in the middle and blurry on the edges. I don't know how you do it, but I guess that's why you're the awsome photo picture taking guy, and I'm just stalking you.

Coop.

P.s. I really am stalking you. I'm in your closet right now with the bats!!!

Don't provoke the purists, they bite. :)

awesome! love that shallow/selective DoF!

awesome photo. have you heard of or seen the works of Toni Hafkenscheid? ...this is right up his alley. his work is beautiful in the similar ways as this photograph.
heres a link:
http://www.marciawoodgallery.com/inventory/inv_hafkenscheid.html

Which NY location is it?

Nice shot. I'm updated.

I dislike images that are out of focus. This disturbs my sense of right. Of all the images of yours that I've seen this is the worst.

Oddly, what you say of the tilt or swing shift lens is exactly the opposite of what the site to which you give a link says, and I would have said what the site says. I've used 4x5 and 5x7 cameras with swing/tilt front lens boards to do architectural and furniture photos.

To quote your link: "Tilt movements allow you to obtain a wide depth of field even at the maximum aperture and still keep the entire subject in focus." To use it artisticly to distort is one thing, but that's not it's initial design purpose.

Absolutely amazing!! Who knew the highway looked that organized?!?!

I really like this shot. But I must admit Im not a big fan of this effect. I feel too much of the shot is blurred. I would love to see it without the top half blurred. I love huge freeways like that, look forward to being on one someday.

great picture
large view of photographer

I absolutely love this image. It looks so fake and so hyper-realistic at the same time, just amazing what the tilt-lens effect did for it.

These shots are so unique and beautiful. Thamks.

Fine photo, I like the colours. But imho it looks rather artificial when blurred so strong with that one narrow strip sharp. Maybe it's only me feeling that way. Greets.

A truly neat photo, but I think you mis-state the use of a tilt lens. As used on a view camera or flexible body intermediate format, the lens is commonly tilted to place the depth of field along a receding plane, to compensate for the shallow focus caused by the long lenses used for such formats. The effect we strive for is edge to edge shapness, not shallow or selective focus. Here it seems particularly out of place, since the subject is of consoderable distance away, where tilting the lens would not be necessary, and would nave only negligible effect in any event.

ha. i seriously thought at first glance that i was looking at a miniature town! and for once, i actually like the effect of shallow focus. the monotone range of colour also really adds to the beauty of this shot.

Very cool effect.

Hello, i have your blog found by google. beautifull pics from arround the world.
best wishes from jena (see here: http://www.kernberge.de/cam/ )
thomas

i really like this picture. the tone, the framing and the elements are well composed.

OMG, you did it again. Fantastic!

i actually feel lazy to give comment these few days but this pic is worth my time to click on the comment button ^-^

I like everything about this shot, but what I think makes it especially good is the desaturated look. The selective focus and the perspective also add to this shot - excellent!

I like Photoshop...for some things. But I'm an old fart, and I think there are certain things optics can do that Photoshop cannot.

see the work of Toni Hafkenscheid for some examples.
http://www.robertbirchgallery.com/site/hafkenscheid_workpage.html

There are some alternatives to Shift/Tilt lenses that I think don't cost so much and are perhaps even more fun to play with. Once upon a time, I took apart a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 and by putting it back together "wrong" made it a real fine extreme close-focus wide-angle lens. very cool.

As for the "architectural" photographers who've commented about this alleged mis-use/abuse of shif/tilt, well, it's just a tool, do you understand? "mis-use" in this context means Sam isn't playing by "their" rules. But Sam's rules are not theirs, and that's why his stuff looks better than theirs.

This is not one of my favorite Sam pix, but there's enough in here to take advantage of, and the concept is right on target. I just prefer a "real" lens to Photoshop in this instance. Good seeing. Good experimenting. Nice work.

chuck.

the blur and sharpness seem a little artificial and make the whole shot look like an architect's model, esp when there's a distinct line aross the roads, but the twisting of highways and biways never cease to fixate me. i don't know much about photoshop or photography, in general, but i imagine it is quite difficult to create the effect you were going for.

VERTIGO!

Oh o ho! very nice site!

Nice site you have!