8 Great Gift ideas for the photographer in your life.

Nov 22

Alfred carefully opens a superbly wrapped gift from his wife Gertrude. Could it be that high tech Box Brownie he has been drooling over for the last year?

There is nothing more satisfying than giving a gift, and even better to know that the gift is something that the recipient will enjoy and use for years to come. so below I will try and give you some gift ideas for the photographer in your life, I can’t possibly cover everything here but my aim is to give you 8 gift ideas that range from the cheap to expensive and lots in-between, you never know there might be something here that you haven't thought of before to inspire you to get them that special gift. They will be amazed at your knowledge of their hobby, either that or keep the receipt just in case it goes pear shaped and they just bought the same thing themselves but didn’t tell you.

These are in no particular order at all.

No 1

A Subscription.

Phone Apps

At first glance you may be thinking why? What for?

Its pretty simple really, there are some great Apps that are of a real use to a photographer, they are not all free and they come in so handy. The ones i use the most and which i cover in my 5 Awesome Apps for Photography Blog are the OSMaps App and Photopills. They are the perfect companions to take your photography trips. Take a look at that blog to get some idea of what you get.

Photo Editing

These days if you want to edit photos you will need specialised software to do the job, some of these software companies still let you purchase a version of the editing software, but when they update the software the next year you might not be able to use the new improvements. For this reason and the fact that I think it is the best manufacturer for this type of software, I use ADOBE products in particular Lightroom and Photoshop. In the past these to were available to by straight out, but now it is on a subscription basis only, some people don’t like this way of doing things but with their subscription as long as you keep paying the monthly subscription you get all the software updates for free, this keeps the photographer in your life always unto date with the most recent version of Lightroom and Photoshop, there are lots of options to choose from so the best thing to do is type ABODE into your search engine and choose the subscription that suits you.

No 2

Memory Card

Maybe not the most appealing gift to give to someone but an absolutely vital part of you camera kit. First find the type of memory card that is used in the camera/s, they will most likely be SD cards, but the newest type that is becoming more popular in the more expensive cameras are CFexpress cards. As a general rule of thumb go for a fast card which ever type it may be, in the case of SD cards go for anSDXC card these are much faster than SDHC cards. And the most important thing to look for is the WRITE speed of the card, this dictates how fast the photos taken on the camera are written or saved to the card. As always the faster ones will be more expensive but they will absolutely be worth it. There are loads of reviews online so check them out.

As an example the cards opposite as of mid November 2021 are priced as such, and these are the fastest available at this time also - hence the price.

64 Mb SD card - £129

128 Mb CFexpress card - £199

No 3

Now for a more affordable gift.

Microfibre Cloth

Dirt cheap but absolutely necessary for keeping all that expensive camera kit clean and dry. Available in supermarkets everywhere these water absorbing cloths are a great addition to any camera bag, you can use them to clean down the lens and camera, to place over a camera to keep dry if using on a tripod and most importantly dry off all the camera kit before placing in your bag or drying at home.

A cheap additional gift that will be guaranteed to be used.

No 4

BenQ screen light bar

This is a light that you attach to any computer monitor (not laptops) and it provides light that is directed just in front of your monitor( so as not to get screen glare) not all over the room. It just clips over the monitor by means of a counter weight that latches over it and you can alter the luminosity to suit the job you are doing on your computer. it is really well suited when editing photos as you are keeping a constant light source on your monitor. (Never edit with the monitor facing a window) BenQ light bar weblink

Price - £89

No 5

Tuition/Workshops

This can come in many guises which include downloadable photoshop/camera courses bought online to one on one location workshops and group location workshops which can vary from the UK to Iceland, the Faroe Isles and I have even seen one that is going to Antarctica, these workshops are a great way to interact with other photographers and give you time to concentrate on your hobby 100% whilst learning a trick or two along the way.

As regards where to go for the workshops depends on your genre, again use search engines or just ask the photographer in your life who they would like to go with. They can range from £50 for a group workshop for one day, up to thousands of pounds for the long haul ones that will generally last a week or even more.

Or keep it simple and give them a subscription to a local camera club.

No 6

Books

I am going to mention two categories here and these are books about innovative photographers and books about locations.

The Innovative Photographer category is basically books about or written/photographed by the Photographer themselves. Choose the genre your photographer is interested in then have a look on a search engine, there are too many books and artists to cover here so best to narrow it down that way, some examples are below:

Genre Author/Photographer

Landscape Ansel Adams

Wildlife Frans Lanting

Portrait / fashion Richard Avedon

War / Urban strife Don McCullin

Architectural Andreus Gursky

The second group are location/visitor guides. These guides will tell you were to go in a particular location, how to get there, some tips on kit, best time of the year to go, etc.

As I am a Landscape photographer the guides I use are from a company called Fotovue and they are specific to a certain location, for example The Lake District. They are exceptional well written with maps, photos and heaps of great photo ideas. They are great if you have never been to that destination before and are a really helpful information source.

The list here again is endless, but there are some great books out there that will inspire and get those creative juices flowing.

No 7

Gear.

This is a pretty obvious one and it can cover a multitude of things, but for this instance I am talking about anything your photographer will use when out and about doing photography, a short list is given below, I cannot be too specific here as different genres of photography will demand different gear.

A new Lens - Ask what lenses they would like to complete their kit (please note this will more than likely be an ongoing wish list!). find out the make and type of lens, for example is it a Nikon F mount or Z mount. It will be easier to get them to write down exactly what they are after as some lenses are pretty expensive, and you don’t want to get the wrong one.

A Tripod - Not necessary for all genres of photography, but extremely useful in low light situations where the camera will need to take a long exposure. The best(and unfortunately the most expensive) tripods are made of Carbon Fibre, they are extremely strong and very light to carry. Buy a good tripod and it will last you years and years. Some brands are Manfrotto, Gitzo, Benro, 3 Legged Thing and Peak Design.

Camera Bag - An absolute must, but us photographers can be very picky when it comes to bags, get one that will carry all gear they normally go out with, one that opens on the back(where the straps are)will give better security, try to get one that is as waterproof and with lots of pockets. I use a Shimoda Action X50, this is a 50 litre back pack but it is also available in 30 and 70 litres options. It is extremely comfortable and the roll top to the bag can expand to put in more clothing etc. Check it out here. Shimoda Action X50

No 8

Wacom tablet

What the hell is that I hear you cry, well it is a basically an electronic drawing pad, that can replace the computer mouse.

But it comes to the fore when using photo editing software such as photoshop/Lightroom and they are such useful devices to use. Editing a photo with a Wacom Tablet gives you a much more natural way to edit and when you get used to it you can get rid of you computer mouse all together. There are many versions that Wacom manufacture, the one I use is an Intuos Pro Medium. And as the name suggests there is also a small and large version available. You would think that bigger is better, but not on this occasion. The large version is massive and takes up a lot of desk space and isn’t really necessary, and the small one is just too small (in my opinion).

Wacom tablets are available from most online photo gear retailers including Wex and Park Cameras to name a few and you also but them direct from Wacom

This list could go on and on, but I hope I have given you some ideas for a great gift, if you would like any help with anything I have listed above please feel free to contact me and I will try to help you out. Good hunting.

I could go on and on about this, but the best thing to do is just ask your photo friend what Apps or software they could find useful to them….I am sure they will let you know.