Novel: Still Photos that move !

It is, in their own words, 'something more than a photo but less than a video'.Two artists have created a new way to to record your special moments - pictures with movement.The 'cinemagraphs' look like still photos but actually feature a subtle area of movement designed to grab your eye and keep you looking. The effect is slightly eerie - but utterly captivating. Hair-raising: Cinemagraphs may look like stills, but they feature a subtle area of movement designed to grab your eye. These animated photos are the work of Jamie Beck (pictured) and her fellow artist Kevin Burg Turning a page:  In one shot of a crowded square, bodies are frozen in time, but one man quietly turns the pages of his newspaper. The cinemagraphs work by using GIFs, a type of picture format similar  to a JPEG which has been around since the invention of home computers but has come into its own with broadband Internet Miss Beck has worked with motion graphics artist Kevin Burg to make the cinemagraphs by using GIFs, a type of picture format similar to a JPEG which has been around since the invention of home computers. Only now with broadband Internet are they bringing it to life with a startling effect.'Our cinemagraphs are a way of adding motion to a still image,' Miss Beck said. Not as simple as they look: The more complex animated photos take the artists an entire day to pull together.In most cases she shoots the photos and Mr Burg adds on motion-graphics over several hours of painstaking editing. The more complex ones take an entire day to pull together. New York-based Miss Beck told The Atlantic magazine: 'There's something magical about a still photograph - a captured moment in time - that can simultaneously exist outside the fraction of a second the shutter captures. 'We feel there are many exciting applications for this type of moving image.There's movement in everything and by capturing that plus the great things about a still photograph you get to experience what a video has to offer without the time commitment a video requires.' She added that sharing websites such as Tumblr have been essential for helping them publish their work and getting them an audience. Another photo of a restaurant terrace is brought to life by the reflection of a taxi going past  in the window.