moving picture monday {with a theme}... and a few questions {if you would be so kind as to answer them}

is it really monday already? wow, that week went by quickly! it seems like i did the last moving picture monday link-up just yesterday. i guess i've been away from blogland more than i thought i would be... i published only one other post since last monday's.

but here i am again for another link-up post... i made it back for the fourth moving picture link-up! i wasn't sure how long i would do this little project... i'm still not sure, actually. i guess it depends on how much interest others show. so far, there has not been an extremely large number of participants. but it's still early, so i want to give it a chance to get moving {haha...pun intended}. 

that's where you all will come in at the end of this post... or where i hope you will come in. i will be including a short questionnaire about moving picture mondays, so as to gage where i might go with it from this point on.

but on to the fun part for now... my moving picture!

after my lack-luster moving picture from last week, i thought i better come up with something a little more creative... something that looks like i put a little more time and effort into it. for this one, i simply put the camera on a tripod and set my focus button to manual. then, i just started snapping away, turning the lens a little each time between shots so as to bring the out-of-focus branch into focus and then back out again.


here is another less intricate version using a branch from that same tree, but one that has only just begun to emerge {it does not get as much sun as the rest of the tree, so it's a little bit behind}...

with today being only the second day of april, i wanted to use this shakespeare quote... "april hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

but then i decided my photos were not very "youthful", and i thought this quote was more suited...

yesterday the twig was brown and bare;

today the glint of green is there;

tomorrow will be leaflets spare;

i know no thing so wondrous fair,

no miracle so strangely rare.

i wonder what will next be there!

~l.h. bailey

before i wrap this post up with my last few thoughts {and questions} about moving picture mondays, i wanted to feature one of the moving picture submissions from last week... cathy's lovely animation of umbrellas in the rain.

i thought it went well with my springy theme today. i don't know why, but it reminds me of a nineteenth century painting... perhaps a "monet meets a rainy, moving version of seurat's most famous painting"?? isn't it fun? i wish i could feature them all, but for space' sake, i have to limit to just one per week. thank you so much to all who participated last week! {and each week so far!} i hope you all will be back again this week!

one of the photographers/bloggers who contributes here on moving picture mondays suggested that i offer a prompt or theme for these link-ups... so that those who might be interested in participating will have some sort of jumping point or inspiration to guide their animation concept... an idea of what to animate with their photos.

i actually thought of that back when i started moving picture monday, but i wasn't sure if i wanted to do that, because i wanted others to have the flexibility to do absolutely anything they wanted with these. and i thought that would make for some interesting variety, because that is what makes these so much fun... the endless possibilities! but then i realized it might be a good idea, so i'm going to try that out.

of course, if you were planning on submitting a link today, to an animation you already made, it will not have been made as a result of a theme given by me, since i did not give one last week. so for this week's link-up, i will leave it themeless. {although, the theme i chose to go with is emerge, and you can too... if you'd like! i thought it would go well with spring and the new life all around us in this new month of april. i may come back to that theme again before spring is over.}

okay... that's it!

if you are going to submit today with the theme of your own choosing and you've submitted before, you know the ropes. if you have not submitted before, here's what you do...

to join the fun, grab the button below{by copying and pasting the code that is in the box below the flying birds gif}and add it to the html of your moving picture postso that you can link back to the party here from your blog.
<center><a href="http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/search/label/moving%20pictures%20link-up"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvF0xyJyhyphenhyphenVUMDHMy46d7YMcdYeAz1iyDGReI-DbtV-D47LrmzT__0_vJ-m729TX7Ln722GWySkClmZldqQpWjxezDi0R1dsPuc5LL6xheOZ0c3e1p4dBUdUcQqRLpC7Zs79KYGRQYKf4/s1600/moving-pictures-button_f.gif" /></a></center>
then... link up to your post here, by adding your link at the end of this post in inlinkz.
lastly, have fun!
{{NOTE: after you submit your entry and inlinkz takes you to the page where you can grab an image from your post for the thumbnail link, it will let you choose your gif image {and crop it, if you want}, but it will not actually show up, because it does not recognize gifs, so inlinkz uses the little blue cartoon face for the link instead. i'd rather have an image that reflects my blog for my link, so i just choose my profile picture instead.}}

if you didn't make a moving picture yet but planned on it, we can try out this new theme/prompt idea this week, and you go ahead and make your animation with the emerge theme, too... but don't feel like you have to!


if you are new here and don't know how to make animated gifs, but would like to, you can see my photoshop tutorial for making them here. if you have elements, you can read an excellent tutorial for making them here.

okay... one more thing...


if you would be so kind, can you answer these questions in a comment to help me get a better idea of where i should go with this moving picture monday endeavor?

one... should i keep doing moving picture mondays?... indefinitely? {i almost gave up last monday, because it looked like only one other person was going to join that week.} these take some time. i love to do them, but it's a lot of work to set up the link-up each week in addition to shooting and creating my animation. {especially when i have a baby at my ankles letting me know he wants me to play with him instead of other photographers/bloggers. *wink*} 

two... if i do keep hosting moving picture monday link-ups, should i incorporate the idea of giving a theme prompt each week? {in other words, are you less inclined to participate without some sort of guideline or inspiration for your animation subject?}

three... do you think i should do these once a month instead of every week? {i'm just wondering if readers choose not to participate because it's too time-consuming to be a weekly thing.} 

four... if you have not participated, is it because you don't like linky parties, or is it because while you do enjoy making animated gifs, you would rather do them on your own at your own pace, not within the community of a link-up atmosphere?

five... are you apprehensive to try making an animated gif {and thus joining the link-up} because making animations seems too difficult or intimidating?

six... if you have no interest in creating animations with your photos, do you still enjoy seeing others'? and if so, do you simply like to view, but choose not to comment on m.p.m. posts because you feel like you shouldn't join in on comments if you are not going to submit your own animation? {if that is the case for any of you, i hope you will not feel that way... i hope you know your are perfectly welcome to comment on m.p.m. posts, even if you are not participating with a moving picture of your own... and i'm guessing the other participants would appreciate your input, too! so, please... feel absolutely free to chime in.}

i think that's it for my questions. i hope i covered all that has me curious about what others think of moving picture mondays. and and all thoughts and ideas are very welcome! as always, i look forward to seeing any contributions. each week, i continue to be delighted seeing the creatively different things you all do with these. i hope you feel the same about my animations! and as always, i will leave the link-up open for a week! happy animating!


oops! sorry... one more thing again... feel free to leave some ideas for themes i can use in the coming weeks. but until i get your ideas, i'll go with one that i came up with for next week. it is words. it's a somewhat vague subject, i know. but i want to keep these themes more broad so that there is still a lot of room for a wide array of ideas that you can come up!