Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.
We may take GIFs for granted sometimes, putting them in the category of lolcats, slightly above rage comics, and well below YouTube videos. But occasionally one will stand up and declare itself a work of art.
Such is the case for blogger Marinus, a 27-year old Tumblr user from the Netherlands. The GIFS he creates at Head Like An Orange may be only 500 pixels wide, but they are vast in scope. Often shot from a low angle, they give a sense of the immensity of the universe and humanity’s small but serene place within it.
He retains, however, a sharp sense of perspective, as you can see from this post:
Dear followers,
I noticed some people have been making black-and-white versions of my GIFs lately. Thanks to a contact at NASA, I have now acquired the super advanced technology to do this myself. So for anyone who doesn’t like colour or is still using a black-and-white monitor from 1981 like me, I’ve created a new blog with the incredibly original name Black & White GIFs. I’ll buy everyone who follows it ice cream. =)
Great, we love ice cream.
This GIF is in tones of sepia and grey: a night starscape in a barren grassland, a closeup of an ancient pine, with the foothills of a mountain range in the distance. It has made a powerful impression on many people, with 7221 notes.
Sometimes a humble GIF can lift you up to the stars.
