If you enjoy taking pictures and haven’t heard of the December Photo Project, I encourage you to check it out and try it this year. All you have to do is take one photo every day from now until December 25 and post it online somewhere, either in one of the dedicate Flickr or Facebook groups, or using the hashtag #DPP2015. What I love about it is it forces me to be creative during a month that is notoriously terrible for picture-taking (it gets dark really early, it’s often overcast outside, I run out of Christmas decorations to photograph, etc. etc.).

I’ve participated in the project for four years now, and sometimes I’ll add extra restrictions for myself to make it more interesting. For instance, one year I did all Instagram pics; another year I restricted myself to using my DSLR.

This year, I’m limiting myself to Live Photos that are converted to GIFs. This provides the extra challenge of finding an interesting subject that also features some sort of motion. I’ll be posting my pics on Facebook and Twitter this year. I invite you to join me!

Here are some apps that can convert Live Photos to GIFs:

• LiveToGIF (Free)
• Live GIF ($1.99)
• Alive (Free, with $1.99 IAP to remove branding & ads)
• Lively (Free for 3 exports, then $1.99)
• ImgPlay (Free w/$1.99 IAP for extra features)

Alive has been my favorite so far, and will probably be the one I use for this project. Now: time to go hunting for today’s subject!

Update 12-1-15 3:45PM CST: I found an even better app for converting Live Photos called Alive! (yes, same name except with an exclamation point). It’s $1.99 and is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’m going to write a whole separate post on it in a moment.