Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model.  Photo's of this type have a very narrow band of focus in the scene, with the foreground and backgroud very out of focus, fooling the brain into thinking that a miniature World is being photographed.  To add good miniature effects to the photographs, shoot subjects from a high angle (especially from the air), creating the illusion of looking down at a miniature model.

There are a few ways to achieve this effect for yourself.  Get a tilt-shift lens for your camera (pretty expensive > £1000) allowing your camera to take photos with an adjustable very shallow depth of field.
As an alternative, get a small tilt-shift adaptor ring (cheaper < £90) to fit your camera and use one of your existing lenses fitted to it.  It's not as easy to use or as good as the full lens, but some great effects can be acheived.
Lastly, take normal photos and Photoshop them to add the effect.  No where near as good and not as much fun, but it can work pretty well.

I've created a gallery of examples so you can see the effect and hopefully inspire you to try it out for yourself.  Click on any of the images below to go to the gallery.

 
Also, the effect works just as well with video, especially if speeded up afterwards, take a look at this:

I know it's a big ask, but if any of you would like to make a contribution, go ahead, make my day!