You may be fiddling with your iPhone eight hours per day, four of which you spend watching GIFs with cats, and skateboarders who jeopardize their privates, trying to jump over handrails. You know the name of the iPhone inventor, but I bet that you don’t know the names of those who invented the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format).
Well, here they are: Alexander Trevor, Steve Willhite, and Olia Lialina. These guys were the team, who created GIF and contributed to its development - and the format itself was invented in 1987. A GIF format went through different stages, from classic animation to looped sequences, and nowadays it is used both to use in a messenger with your friends and to showcase the professional level of a designer or a photographer. They say, if it were not for Netscape, GIFs would have died in 1998. What did Netscape do that was so outstanding? They added an animation loop to it.
In 2012, Oxford University Press recognized “GIF” as a verb, and nowadays you wouldn’t be able to surprise anyone with a moving image, not if they have an average human being’s normal acquaintance with the Web. However, you may surprise someone by explaining what is depicted in a GIF image.
In this blog post, I’ve brought you the most elegant, spirit-stirring and highly aesthetic GIFs that I was able to find on the Web. I’d rather call it a list of “GIFs for photographers”, in my opinion, as they would serve the biggest inspiration for photographers. By the way, if you are a photographer and you still don’t have a website, you may check out WordPress themes for photographers on the Web. They help a lot.
‘And why would you need GIFs or cinemagraphs?’ you may ask. The ways of using them are endless.
You may launch social media marketing campaigns with cinemagraphs, create contests to engage visitors, illustrate products for a better perception or illustrate the news, if they involve some visual data. GIFs can comprise short ads, which don’t allow your viewer’s attention to be distracted, because they are so short and informative that viewers can’t help watching them. There are dozens of ways of using GIFs and cinemagraphs.
Here’s a general short list.
- Tweets
- Emails
- Team announcements
- Tutorials
- Product showcase
- Storytelling, presentations
- Ads
- Data animation
- Blogging
- Social media
etc.
Don’t forget that there are free cinemagraphs available on the Web. You may also be interested not only in GIFs for photographers, but in GIFTs for photographers as well. 🙂
Keep in mind that:
Wherever there is a message, there is a chance for a GIF.
Daria Khoroshavina
Website: Kitchen Ghosts
Daria is a cinemagraph artist and advertising photographer who makes absolutely stunning food-related cinemagraphs. I strongly recommend that you check out all her work, which ooze with heart-warming tranquility and look highly appetizing. Together with her friend, they started a project named Kitchen Ghosts.
Follow the project on Instagram, Dribbble or Twitter.
Julien Dovier
Website: Julien Dovier
Julien Dovier is a freelancer from France, who does animated photography. His work is full of elegance and the subjects of his photography are very diverse, from fashion shoots to bicycles. You may follow him on Facebook, Instagram, Dribbble or Twitter. Note that following him in Instagram will let you see only his smartphone images, not his general work. Those you’ll be able to see on the other social media channels.
Other Great Guys
So, how do you say: [GIF] or [JIF]? 🙂
