Friday Happy Hour: The Animated GIF Turns 25 & More

The holiday season is definitely in full swing, so if you’re tired of gift lists (though you should really check out this one), read on for some non-Christmas-Hanukkah-New Years news from this week below.

The animated GIF turns 25

Remember when GIFs were all the rage in the 90’s, and then seemed to disappear into who knows where? Thanks in large part to Tumblr blogs, the animated GIF has certainly risen from the ashes in recent years. To celebrate its 25th year of existence, Tumblr and Paddle8 sponsored “Moving the Still,” which solicited submissions, chose the best, and put them on display at a party in Miami last week. Here’s a few of our favorites:

(via Fast Co.Design)

Beautiful underwater video by Lytro Director of Photography

Lytro’s Director of Photography Eric Cheng put together a simple but beautiful medley of underwater video clips from his dives in Indonesia. You won’t find any light field technology here, but you will see a pretty sweet underwater housing for his Canon 5D Mark II and GoPro HERO2.

Outdoor photographer captures the opening of Hobbiton

What’s cooler than little hobbits running around Middle Earth? Shooting the lush green landscape they call home! Paul Petch from Outdoor Photography is a New Zealand native and was asked by the tourism board to be the official media shooter at the VIP opening for the green Dragon Tavern at Hobbiton.

“For those who are living under a rock, the Green Dragon is the much anticipated Tavern at Hobbiton, Middle Earth,” he wrote in a blog post outlining the day. “What makes the Green Dragon so special is that it’s a real Tavern which can be visited as part of the Hobbiton guided tours.”

Though it wasn’t all fun and games in Middle Earth – Paul was even challenged to climbing trees to get above the crowds. Check out a few of his shots:

New publication features Hurricane Sandy documentary images

Jay Peg’s is a new documentary and photojournalism publication featuring work from five emerging photographers, all recent grads from the International Center for Photography. Their maiden publication includes work from Hurricane Sandy, and while the publication is free, we encourage you to donate to Sandy Relief.  You can find a list of nonprofits on their website.

Gunther Deichmann’s photo exposition in Paris

PhotoShelter member and Australian photographer Gunther Deichmann has a photo exposition going on now in Paris featuring special selected photos from Australia, Tibet, India, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Gunther has published 12 books and his images have been featured in many books and magazines, including TIME. Check out more information about the exposition here, and see a few of his photos below.

Chinese factory workers photographed with the things they build

Last week Gizmodo posted the work of photographer Michael Wolf, who has a haunting photo series of Chinese factory workers holding the cheap toys and gadgets they build – dolls, trucks, little figurines, etc. Wolf says the atmosphere in the factory was mostly “busy, not depressing.”