This is a list I like to do because let’s face it, buying things for photographers is hard and usually ridiculously expensive. You don’t want to buy someone lenses or cameras or accessories, especially if you don’t know what they use, prefer, or have.
Things not to get photographers unless you’re really familiar with their set-up and style:
- lenses
- filters
- lights
- backdrops
- bags
The things these all have in common is that they’re all very personal & expensive items, which makes it difficult to shop for for someone else. Each person will have different preferences, and buying useful gifts from this list will be very pricey! Here are some safer and more inexpensive choices:
Photojojo is one of my FAVORITE camera-themed stores. The endless awesome photography themed things are always being added. Some of the items can be a little gimmicky, depending on the giftee, but here are some of my current favorites which I think are cute and geeky:
These lens pillows are really cute! They’re pillow versions of some of the common lenses that most every photographer has. If you know nothing about photography, ask your giftee if they use Canon (the one on the left) or Nikon (the one on the right) to figure out which to give them. If they use Pentax or Olympus or whatever, you probably shouldn’t get them anything, just as a punishment (just kidding haha).
Now these are really cool, as an especially geeky-thing. I personally like the no-flash symbol, since that’s the first thing I always set on a point and shoot. But I’m also a RAW shooter so CR2 for me. I think it would be cute to have one that was “DNG <3″ in case you’re a big fan of all-brand love. Make sure you don’t get the wrong one if you’re giving one as a gift (no-flash= everybody, CR2=canon, NEF=Nikon, JPEG= usually sports shooters) or there could be some hurt feelings. Us photographers are sensitive about things like this.
Petapixel, great photo news blog, also has a small store. I hope they add more stuff as time goes on
These are great for a casual friend or part of a larger gift. So many camera themed pixel stickers, and at a good price too. I love stickers and I wasn’t able to use them all, so you definitely get what you pay for~ I’ve decorated my lens hoods, my storage drives, notebooks, pretty much anything you can stick an adorable sticker on.
Really practical gifts:
CF cards or other blank media is a great, practical gift for a photographer. Find out if they use an SD card or a CF card or whatever, and then just get the biggest and best in your price range. Don’t know what card they shoot with? Get them a portable hard drive! Film shooter? No problem! Get them a film binder and archival sleeves, everyone always needs more.
Gaffers tape is really expensive, really useful tape for photographers. Stage-people know how useful this stuff is. It’s better than duct-tape and also quite expensive for tape. Kind of like socks, it might not be something to be excited about, but thankful for later. You could add this as part of a gift-basket for photographers, or buy a bunch of rolls for someone who’s appreciative of sock-type gifts.
Got any more ideas or need some help deciding/picking? Well, there’s always gift cards… but comment and I’ll help you out
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