No tilt shift lens, no problem.

I took this photo of the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal with a 17-85 lens at 17mm  the exposure was f11 20 seconds at iso 100.  The camera was on a mini tripod sitting only inches from the ground and pointed up at a sharp angle.  The angle of the lens makes the building look like it's leaning away from you.

Using the perspective correction tool in my RAW conversion program. (DXO) I was able to straighten out the distortion and get a much better looking photo finished photo. You just need to remember to shoot a little wider so that you can crop.  I ended up having to fill a little space in the bottom left corner with the clone tool in photo shop.