Tilt photography

is totally awesome. Here is some good stuff. Tilting the lens just a few degrees can have a miniaturizing effect on landscapes and cityscapes. I have always wanted a tilt lens for my Pentax, but they are hard to find and rather expensive.

Recently, as I was surfing the web in pursuit of a Pentax K mount to Sony Alpha E adapter, I came across a reasonably priced model that also tilted. I thought to myself: each K-mount lens in my current possession has just become a tilt lens.

Here it is, between my NEX and an old Pentax-M f/1.4 50mm:

I am not sure if you can see the tilt, but the lens is pointing slightly up. That's how you get pictures to look like this.

That is, by the way, a handheld shot at ISO 1600. It helps that the f/1.4 lens is wide open. The NEX is pretty awesome at high sensitivity. I am going to have a lot of fun with this setup.

Not handheld:

 

The miniaturizing effect is really strong in the above shot of the corner playground.

For comparison, here's what the neighborhood looks like through untilted eyes:

ISO 3200, handheld at twilight. Color noise in the sky, yeah yeah, but it's way better low-light capability than I've ever had before. I think it looks good enough for me. I am loving pictures right now.