So much to tell in 1 second
A new camera in town for a new kind of photos.
After the new presidential investiture, I feel like getting some fresh air from the good old days. Two years ago this GIF of President Obama was seen worldwide and millions of times. In just one second, it depicts a full character : relaxed, human, self-confident, enthusiastic…
Would a regular photo of this scene be as popular as this GIF? Not sure. The popularity of this GIF reveals how photography is changing. The collective memory starts keeping in mind 1-second loops more than classic photographies… It tells a lot on how GIFs became a killer format within a few years (For a funny and quick overview of the history of GIF http://thestoryofgif.com/).
A GIF gives you a quick understanding of a situation. It tells you something meaningful in a very short amount of time. On social networks you have to grasp the idea at once because you still have hundreds of posts to scroll over… :)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not setting a hierarchy between photography and GIF, I’m just saying they are triggering different feelings. GIF is a hybrid format between photography and video. As a succession of images it gives more information about reality than a single shot, this is a fact. On the other hand, as a repeated loop, it makes it possible for the viewer to focus on a very furtive instant just like a photography. GIF keeps the very essential of both photography and video. When I looked at all the GIF you can find on Giphy I thought “there is so much to tell in one second, why not creating a GIF camera for everyone?”
Photos born to be alive!
This reflexion about photography and GIF is the very reason of the creation of Pops. Pops are a new kind of GIF (that by the way we prefer to call animated photos), somewhere between Live Photos and Boomerang.
They are animated photos(or GIF, whatever :)) you can easily capture by tapping once on the shutter button of Pops’ camera. We created a simple camera to capture fleeting instants and turn them into lifetime memories.
Your Pops look like normal photos if you don’t do any action over them. They start moving if you tilt your phone like the holographic cards you had in your cereals as a kid. You can also hold your screen to make them loop back and forth to create a feeling of perpetual motion. As soon as you stop holding it comes back to a normal photography. It makes you able to control the never ending loop of a GIF or enjoy the simplicity of a classic photo.
You can also choose the best tempo for the Pops you just shot and simply share the result on Instagram or Messenger.
The brilliant thing about Pops is that you can use it exactly like a normal photo camera. Just try it here, we released our very first version of the app this morning on the AppStore!
A first step before printing animated photos
At Pops, we launched a digital camera because we have much more in mind. In a few days, we’ll be launching a revolution in photo printing… we’ll be printing and delivering your animated photos. You’ll be holding your Pops and your Boomerang in your hands. Your friend laughing, your son walking, you and your lover kissing… and I hope when you’ll watch them ten years from now you’ll think the same as me : “So much to tell in one second”.
