They aren’t models. They are pictures of actual scenery that have been manipulated to LOOK like models.

A real tilt shift lens basically places a band of focus across the image. This works well for scenes that are essentially a flat plane (views from ESB, for example). What I like to do is pick on more awkward subjects and try and make those work as miniatures. This often means masking out sections of the image before applying the blur filter. There are some great examples of masking above – Pongo’s Church and Crane – corking!

Like I said – it’s great fun, but you don’t have to “get” it – I’ll still love ’em all 🙂