Well, yes, I really am working on the much-delayed podcast 21 of the projected 24 podcast series, Marfa Mondays (listen in to the 20 posted so far here)... but thanks to my IT Mexico City go-to guy, Rubén Pacheco, I have grokked the GIF.
The thing is, I love using brief video clips to illustrate podcasts and articles, but a GIF is lickety-split easier to make than a video, even a very short one, as edited in ye olde iMovie.
Another advantage of a GIF: you, dear reader, need not click to launch it from YouTube.
This is the first GIF I made and it will probably forevermore remain my fave, because it is of my writing assistant, my dear departed pug Picadou (2000-2014), and her doting godfather, Mexico's foremost James Dean-channeler, actor Fernando Cattori.
Using the GIF Grabber app, I just "grabbed" the couple of seconds from a video I took on my iPhone.
Here is a GIF I took from my brief video of the Pecos High Bridge near the US-Mexico border (I was traveling there for my book in-progress on Far West Texas):
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| [High Bridge Over the Pecos River, near Comstock, Texas] |
You might notice I added another GIF to the sidebar of this blog, and there was one of BorderSenses magazine in this blog post from last week.
> To make a GIF from a video, I use the app GIF Grabber (free)
> To make a GIF from a set of images, I use the app Easy GIF Maker (99 cents)
> To add text to the GIF, adjust its size, and other edits, I use the webpage www.ezgif.com (free)
Here's a GIF of the March 2016 issue of Letras Libres, which includes my essay "A Visit to Swan House" (Una visita a Swan House), translated by Mexican poet and writer Agustín Cadena:
> You can read "A Visit to Swan House" in the original English and also listen to it as a podcast.
OK, I'll go work on that next podcast now.
