With Christmas coming up, and a new year full of birthdays, I thought I would share 20 gift ideas for any photographer or vlogger or for yourself that I use and own. This may seem like a massive amount but I wanted to be sure to include a variety of ideas.
Don’t forget to watch the video version down at the bottom of the article.
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That being said, these are all items I love and use myself regularly. If you have any other things you think I should try out let me know in the comments. Now let’s get to the fun stuff.
Books
First up is my favorite category because I get a tremendous amount of inspiration from photo books made by other photographers. I have somewhat of an addiction to them, as the giant bookshelf in our home library would attest to, full of instructional and beautiful books about my favorite photographers. One of which is the great William Eggelston.
Another book recommendation I HAVE to give because I can’t stress enough how inspiring this book is to any creative, and that is The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I have a notebook full of quotes and advice from it that I just love!
If you are like me and love visual aids to inspire you, this series of books that shares advertising from all different decades is beautiful. I started out as a designer for an ad agency so this may just appeal to people like me, but they make great coffee table books. This one in particular is my favorite: All American Ads 40’s. They mix together my two favorite things, vintage imagery and history.
Last but not least in this section, I have to of course recommend my very own photo books, or zines. My Zines series is called Riding in Cars with film, and I made them during the pandemic. I hope you will pick them up for yourself and friends.
Camera Bag
This next category is a very saturated area of the market and the choices can be insanely overwhelming. It was for me. I went through a lot of research over the years and have settled on two bags that are now my main ones.
The 2026 Jumper by Brevite is my favorite everyday bag. It is made with great materials that feel premium, and holds all of my gear safely in the main area while the top compartment holds my everyday items like my wallet and notebook. And if you use my link you will get 10% off your purchase.
The other bag is the 25L Peter McKinnon Backpack. B&H has a camera bundle that is a great deal right now. When my family and I went on a trip a couple of years ago I could not find the right carry-on that would carry my gear at my feet for the flight while also carrying everything else I needed with me. This thing took a beating on that trip but still looks new. It fit perfectly at my feet the whole trip and it has now become my favorite travel bag. It has been worth the investment. This bag is pricey, but McKinnon puts so much thought into each of his products that you know it is worth it.
Camera Strap
This next category is pretty much a given for any photographer. After shooting for a couple of hours we all need a good reliable camera strap to hold our camera around our necks to give our arms a rest. Right now the Sailor Straps have been my favorite. I love the colors and the knit material on them. The leather accents are also a nice touch.
Film
Film is a given for every film photographer and while I love Kodak Portra, it has become so expensive, so I am going to recommend two affordable films that are so good too. Kodak Ultramax and Fujifilm 400 are two classics that I have been shooting since I was a kid. If you are into black and white I would recommend Ilford HP5 400.
Notebooks
This category is a must for me. I don’t ever NOT have a notebook on me. I have so many around the house for so many purposes, but specifically for my photography work I use a Field Notes to write down and keep track of each roll I use with my numbering system. I carry these notebooks inside of a journal cover made by Lochby. I absolutely love their products and have several of them.
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Cameras
A camera is always a great gift for a photographer. I am going to assume that they already own their main camera, so here are two fun ones they will love to play with like I do.
I bought this Mini Chuzhao for my 3 year old daughter. It is a $30 digital TLR that I hope will get her used to using my Rolleiflex one day. It is very simple and comes with a memory card. It even shoots a little video.
My next favorite fun camera is the Fujifilm Instax Wide. My father in-law bought me this for my last birthday and I absolutely love it! I am always blown away by the quality of the Instax film photos I get from it. It is my favorite camera to use at family events and I always love to give a photo away to guests and family to go home with.
Lighting
Another must for any photographer or V-logger is lighting. Myself being both, I have a little bit of everything. For my videos that I make for my YouTube channel I use the Aputure Light Dome SE 33.5inch Softbox Bowens Mount with Honeycomb Grid or Aputure Lantern Softbox mounted onto my Aputure 200x bi color Monolight. I wanted a light that I could change the color temp on and this has been great. Its not complicated to used either.
And for my photography as well as video I have this really cool Aputure MC Magnetic Light that is so versatile for effects as well as just great lighting. The lighting effects I used in the intro of this video was from this little light.
Tripods
Finally another must for a V-logger or photographer is a tripod and I use two in my setup. The K+F Concept Heavy Duty Video Tripod is for my video work or portraits. I made a whole video about it on my channel. And the Joby GorillaPod is a compact table top tripod but heavy duty for when I want to travel or film from a hard to access spot.
Final Thoughts
If you want to see more gift Ideas for any photographer, check out this article as well. I hope some of this was helpful to you. I know choosing a gift for someone can be very difficult. Hopefully this made it a little easier for you.
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
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