Photography is complicated enough as it is, but when you add a lens that purposely manipulates the plane of focus or meddles with parallel lines, full comprehension will require a trip to the Physics section of your local bookstore to familiarize yourself with the work of Theodor Scheimpflug. The lenses used to take these photos are highly expensive and the output they produce cannot be used for straight news reportage, yet a handful a sports photographers employ them to capture the visuals of Grand Prix weekends in ways impossible with other equipment. And no, not every tilt-shift photo is a a fake miniature.

Click through for a distorted trip of the past three years of Formula One.

2008 Japanese Grand Prix

Here’s the Red Bull team having fun at Fuji Speedway. This is perhaps the most optically complex photo in our gallery and not only because you are probably spectacularly uninterested in the subjects in the plane of focus.

It’s because the girl’s left cheek also appears to be in focus, yet a blurred field separates it from the Red Bull team members. Physics majors, please explain in the comments.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2009 Monaco Grand Prix

This is classic tilted plane fake miniaturization: the chap in the red car is Kimi Räikkönen, on his way to Ferrari’s only podium finish this year.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

A tilted focus is great for portraiture: photographer Mark Thompson can direct our gaze to Jenson Button’s left eye at the exclusion of everything else. Button here is consulting with his teammates at the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix, before his crushing victory on race day.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 British Grand Prix

If you tilt your plane of focus to a narrow vertical field, you can isolate a race car with sudden clarity. Jenson Button is seen here during free practice at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, where he lost by a wide margin to Red Bull’s flying Sebastian Vettel.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Felipe Massa, 2007 Monaco Grand Prix

Let’s see some Ferraris: Felipe Massa is seen here sharing a plane of focus with a bunch of yachts in Monaco harbor. He is on his way to finish third behind the twin McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Michael Schumacher, 2008 German Grand Prix

Ferrari personnel in their red getups make for great photos: here’s Michael Schumacher at last year’s German Grand Prix, looking very excited as he’s sandwiched in between two aesthetic crimson blobs as the sole punk in blue jeans.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

Ferraris may suck this season, but even parked and hooked up to computers, they look gorgeous. 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen is about to go for a practice run at a race he would finish outside the points. Notice how the tilted plane renders everything but Räikkönen’s head and the yellow Scuderia Ferrari badge out of focus.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2007 British Grand Prix

Last Ferrari photo, but look at the fancy British clouds, sharp only where they line up with the starting grid of Silverstone, which photographer Clive Mason chose as his plane of focus. Kimi Räikkönen is seen here in happier times: he is about to qualify second in the 2007 British Grand Prix, a race he would win on his way to claim the 2007 championship.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Timo Glock, 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

This photo captures like no other Mercedes-Benz’s renowned racing manager Alfred Neubauer’s observation that the racing driver is the loneliest creature in the universe. Neubauer invented pit signaling to remedy this, taking his Mercedes-Benz team to a hail of victories over three decades, while photographer Fred Dufour used a tilt lens to show Toyota’s Timo Glock practicing for the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

David Coulthard, 2008 German Grand Prix

It’s Mr. Jawbone right there in his Red Bull, in the waning months of his long career. Wearing a flameproof balaclava, he is a lone white human figure in a scaffolding of wire and carbon fiber suspension parts.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel, 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

Contrary to what you can read on the pit wall, this is David Coulthard’s successor Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull RB5 car, leaving the pits at the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Hamilton, Heidfeld, Fisichella and Alonso, 2009 Spanish Grand Prix

You can also use a tilt-shift lens to cut through the clutter of people at a press conference, picking out those that your viewers are probably most interested in: bitter 2007 rivals Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, shown here at a press conference three days before the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Red Bull’s Guests, 2007 Italian Grand Prix

Like any other photographic technique, a tilted plane of focus can be used to capture gratuitous shots of young women. These blondes are guests of Red Bull at the 2007 Italian Grand Prix and judging solely on appearance, they are hopped up on the team’s signature soft drink.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 British Grand Prix

And we’re back to toy cars. While photographer Fred Dufour probably did not know at the time he took this picture, Jenson Button’s usually dominant Brawn would actually be relegated to toy car status during last weekend’s British Grand Prix, as Red Bull’s upgraded RB5’s stormed the field, taking their second 1–2 victory of the season.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel, 2008 German Grand Prix

Black and white? Art! Focusing in a slanted plane on Sebastian Vettel’s face shows just how young Red Bull’s superfast German really is: he was born on July 3, 1987. When this photo was taken, he'd only been old enought to have a beer in America for less than two weeks.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Fernando Alonso, 2009 Monaco Grand Prix

For a final tilted image, here’s one for pure aesthetic awesomeness. Fernando Alonso is taking the Grand Hotel Hairpin of the Monaco street circuit in the Renault during free practice at this year’s grand prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Felipe Massa of Brazil and Ferrari comes in for a pitstop during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP drives on his way to winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing is surrounded by photographers on the grid before the start of Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Renault Team Principal Flavio Briatore (center rear) talks at a meeting of Formula One Team Principals and drivers in the Toyota motorhome ahead of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

(L-R) Renault Team Principal Flavio Briatore, Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner and supermodel Naomi Campbell are seen on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel (R) of Germany and Red Bull Racing leads Jenson Button (L) of Great Britain and Brawn GP into the first corner at the start of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Felipe Massa of Brazil and Ferrari tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Drivers take the start of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix, at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP celebrates in parc fermé after winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Mark Webber of Australia and Red Bull Racing celebrates with champagne and trophy after finishing second in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP leads from Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP celebrates with team mates in the paddock after winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing drives on his way to finishing third in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Brawn GP's British driver Jenson Button drives ahead of Red Bull's German driver Sebastian Vettel at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul, during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Brawn GP's British driver Jenson Button drives at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul, during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button was so fast at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix, he could afford to sit down for a picnic with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata during the race.

In a surprising move which was nonetheless perfectly in line with the sheer dominance of both his car and his skills driving it, Jenson Button pulled over to the side of the track at Istanbul Park on the second to last lap of this Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix to treat his girlfriend, fashion model Jessica Michibata, to an impromptu picnic of Turkish cuisine.

“I was on the last lap, way up in the lead from Mark and Seb in their Red Bulls, so I thought—why not? You can certainly use a cold ayran on a hot summer afternoon in Istanbul,” Button said.

After nine disappointing seasons in Formula One, the 29-year-old Englishman is currently the dominant driver on the grid by a long margin. While he did not start the Turkish Grand Prix from pole, he pounced on an early error by Sebastian Vettel to take a lead he would build up to picnicworthy proportions by lap 57.

“So Ross was saying, ‘Hey Jess, Jenson’s just said on team radio he’d prefer a quick bite before the checkered flag,’ so off I went,” recalled Michibata. “I took a few döner kebaps, two pints of ayran, some strained yogurt and a bite of baklava, all wrapped in the checkered flag he was set to take.” She would return the flag to race officials after their meal.

Seated on the car’s side air intakes in a brilliant blue Hermès silk scarf, the Argentine-Japanese Michibata recalled images of a more glamorous era of motor racing. After finishing their delicious Turkish meal, Button climbed back into his BGP-001 to drive the white racing car across the finish line.

“Jessica rustled up one hell of a meal. But man, I so could’ve used a Red Bull to wash that döner kebap down with,” Button said after his post-race interview.

In case you missed Jalopnik’s live coverage of the race, you can catch up here. We will continue with galleries and a full race report.

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Drawing by the author.

In a bit of an experiment at live race broadcasting here, we will be following the race on Twitter as it happens at http://jalopnik.com/f1live. Yours truly shall be your host for the morning, but you too can join in, if you have something to say. Just tweet something funny or informative during the race and add this hashtag: #f1live

The race will be held at Istanbul Park, home to the famous multi-g Turn 8, and for the past three years, Felipe Massa of Ferrari has won every Grand Prix here. He is clawing his way back to the top after starting this season in a dismal Ferrari, but many have tried to beat Jenson Button this year. So far, only Red Bull’s Seb Vettel has succeeded in Shanghai, as Button leads the championship by 51 points, followed by Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello with 35 and Vettel with 23.

The race kicks off on Sunday at 3 PM local time, which means 8 AM on the East Coast and 5 AM on the West Coast, so it’s definitely a game for early birds. Do join us, though, if you’re awake, it will be a lot of fun. And if you decide to sleep in, don’t worry. We will follow the live broadcast with a race report. With Crayola to accompany the words, of course.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images. Gorgeous watercolor event banner: Natalie Polgar