They're scenes pulled straight out of a 1950s traveling brochure. Classic cars, trucks, buses, and trains set in period-specific backdrops of vintage Americana. But it's not what you think. It's a world of scale models and forced perspectives, all created with a cheap point-and-shoot and just the slightest touch of Photoshop.

Michael Paul Smith is the first to admit he isn't a professional photographer. "I know very little about lenses, f-stops, and the like," Smith tells WIRED. "I use an inexpensive point-and-shoot Canon SX280, which in fact is a bit too good for creating my scenes. My original camera, was a $75, 6 megapixel Sony, and it was perfect for what I needed."

Smith, who compiled his various works from Flickr into the book Elgin Park: An Ideal American Town, has been making models his entire life. He started crafting buildings out of cigar boxes to accompany his plastic model cars as a teenager, and today, he has over 300 die cast cars and trucks. But having them "just sitting on my shelves seemed sad."

So Smith started playing around with sets, eventually going outside to photograph his fictional scenes behind a real background. "That was a leap of faith," Smith says. "Creating a context for them appealed to me, but I wasn't sure how to go about doing it."

Smith maintains the right balance of simplicity and his basic equipment is what makes the photos so amazingly absorbing. Rather than relying on Photoshop or other post-production tools, he focuses on using basic lighting (60 watt bulbs and Christmas lights) and getting the depth of field just right.

"Granted I could create these effects in post production, but then I would be moving away from the original challenge of creating the complete image in the camera," Smith says. Although in the interest of full disclosure, he admits to using a few filters and tints to get the right effect, but says, "It's all very low tech and I enjoy the challenge."

Smith's effort, experimentation, and unwavering devotion to accuracy netted magnificent results – to his own amazement.

"I was the most surprised person on the planet when I downloaded the images and saw the results," Smith says.

All photos: Michael Paul Smith