24 Last-Minute Photography-Related Gift Ideas

Hey, the holidays are here! Is it the the 11th hour yet? Are you like me (and many others), who cannot figure out what photography-related gifts and stocking stuffers to get for all but your closest friends, family members, favorite shutterbugs, and romantic partners? Well, here are a few ideas—including many that will fit in your favorite person’s stocking—for those with the dreaded gift-giving block. These aren’t just my ideas, some of my colleagues at B&H told me what was on their last-minute wish lists, as well!

1. Keep Those Hands Warm

For half of the planet, it is winter, and there are few things worse than cold hands when you’re out making winter photographs. When the option is staying indoors and missing the shot, your shutterbug will really appreciate the warmth of your generous thoughts and a pair of Freehands Gloves that have photo-awesome features like touchscreen-compatible magnetic fingertips that allow you to work your camera’s controls when needed. For other styles, click here.

2. A Modern Picture Frame

Remember those digital picture frames you bought when you got started in digital photography? They would show a slide show of your best shots and have cool transitions between slides, right? Well, your photos are now worth more than a 3 x 5" or 4 x 6" digital display. The Samsung The Frame is more than your 43, 49, or 55" UHD Smart TV—it is a classy and customizable way to display your art when you aren’t binge-watching your favorite shows. You must see this product to believe how good it is. Your digital images will look like framed and matted physical prints… right up to the moment when the image changes, or you flip the “channel” to watch TV. Super cool!

3. Support Them

There are way too many photographers wandering the world with cheap tripods that, honestly, do more harm than good to their photos. And, there are a lot of photographers who haven’t experienced the true spiritual awakening of what a tripod can do for their photography. So, give the gift of support! The Manfrotto 190Go! tripod easily made our list of 12 Recommended Travel Tripods for its price and features. If you want to look at full-sized three-legged supports, check this link.

4. Bag It

Like tripods, your intrepid photographer may have set off into the wilds of the urban jungle (or the jungle jungle) with a sub-standard camera bag. How unfortunate! Maybe it is time to remedy this. There are tons of brands and tons of bags on the market, but the Lowepro ProTactic SH 180 AW shoulder and/or messenger bag has a rugged tactical look and does not scream “camera bag!” to others on the buses, subways, and streets of the city. And, don’t forget the fashion-style bags for those fashion-forward photographers.

5. All of The Colors of the Rainbow

Here is an innovative product that will change the way your photographer will do photos and video, moving forward. The Luxli Viola² 5" On-Camera LED light can throw out a lot of continuous light and change colors with its onboard controls, or by using an iOS mobile application. I recently attended a National Parks at Night Workshop and the Viola was one of the top light-painting tools of the trip. Check out this video that shows off the Viola’s capabilities and check out the Viola’s big brother, the 10" Cello.

6. SSD Storage is Solid

Every photographer needs more storage. Every single one. Not long ago, you needed a server the size of a coat closet to store 1TB of data. Nowadays you can gift someone a solid-state drive with a huge amount of storage that will fit in your pocket—so small that you will likely run it through the washing machine a few times without knowing it. Check out these 1TB options from SanDisk and Samsung.

7. L as in Love

The L-bracket is one of those photo accessories that very few people have, but the ones who do find them indispensable and feel disadvantaged when they no longer have one attached to their camera. Let’s cut to the chase: if the photographer in your life uses a tripod more than a little bit, they will likely love having an L-bracket to let them flip the camera from horizontal to vertical in seconds instead of fumbling with the tripod ball head’s 90-degree notch. Want to read about my L-bracket obsession? Click here.

8. The Nifty 50

As you read this, many photographers, and lots of our photographer friends, are walking around the street with kit zoom lenses that give good—but not great—performance. There are expensive ways to upgrade a kit, and there is an inexpensive way—the 50mm lens. One of the best lenses any photographer can carry in their bag is the inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. Don’t believe me? Check out this article. And, they are very inexpensive in the world of expensive gear. For the shooter who already has a 50mm f/1.8, the upgrade to a 50mm f/1.4 lens might be a holiday dream come true!

9. Remote Control

An unlikely companion in the rookie’s camera bag, the wired, cable, or remote shutter release is a meaningful accessory that is nearly a requirement for some not-so-advanced photographic endeavors like night photography or time-lapse photography. The Vello ShutterBoss II packs a timer, remote, and other functions into its body. Match up your camera brand with the correct ShutterBoss and start doing some cool stuff with your camera.

10. Instant Film Cameras

Fashion and design are often cyclical, but one area of photography has been extremely popular—the instant camera market. This was not predicted by the experts, since they all had their eyes bloodied by counting pixels in the digital world. Led by the FUJIFILM instax, there are now a handful of brands making instant cameras that take instax and other types of instant film—including the Polaroid remakes by Impossible and even the legendary Leica and Kodak brands.

11. Be a Hero

A bit on the spendy side—only use as a stocking stuffer if your other gifts are… disappointing—the GoPro HERO8 Black will likely find a place of honor with any photographer, even if they aren’t spending the weekend snowboarding or the summers in the surf. The GoPro is a completely capable camera that simply can go where “regular cameras” cannot. And, like a lot of sports and action cameras, it fits in a standard Mk 1 Mod 0 stocking. You are welcome.

12. A Softer Touch

You might think the photographer or photographers in your life have everything, but they probably don’t have a beautiful soft shutter release. Some are handmade from different materials like wood, bronze, silver, and more, these soft shutter releases allow your photographer to make his or her camera truly unique while helping to reduce camera shake during the capture of an image. Be sure to see if their camera accepts a threaded release or an adhesive one.

13. The Never Ending Gift of Education

As a photographer, I am constantly learning new tricks and techniques and refining my craft. I am a proponent of the formal photographic education, as well as the slightly less formal ways you can learn photography. Our friend Scott Kelby has been molding the minds of photographers of all skill levels and ages for many years, and a digital subscription to his lessons gives you access to hundreds of online photo courses covering wide-ranging topics.

14. Modify Light

Here is an idea that is off the beaten path. If your photographer is a lover of artificial light and is often seen with a speedlight strobing atop his or her camera, consider giving them a light modifier. There are an infinite number of ways to shape light—softboxes, domes, diffusers, and more. Some of them are very reasonably priced to give your favorite shooter a great value gift and help them improve their flash photography.

15. Strap It

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: there are better camera straps than the one that shipped with your camera, and there are ones that don’t give free advertising to your favorite camera brand. When I ask folks for gift ideas, the camera strap is always on the list and the one camera strap brand that keeps getting mentioned is Peak Design.

16. Celestron NexYZ 3-Axis Universal Smartphone Adapter

Does your favorite gift recipient already have a smartphone? Do they also have a telescope, microscope, spotting scope, or binoculars? Give them the ability to share what they see via text or social media with the Celestron NexYZ 3-Axis Universal Smartphone Adapter. In today’s world, sharing images has become part of the mainstream of our social lives and this smartphone adapter is the best we have seen. Sharing photos is even cooler when you are sharing photos of things only seen through scopes!

17. Bend It

One of the more innovative solutions to the age-old problem of stabilizing your camera, the miggo Splat Pro Flexible Mini Tripod is flexible and versatile, and some of them glow in the dark (a feature that makes almost anything cool). You can wrap it around things, wrap it around your camera, hang it, or use it like a tabletop tripod. The Splat is ready for many chores. If the Splat isn’t to your liking, check out our extensive and varied line of tabletop and mini tripods that are perfect stocking stuffers.

18. Tiny Printer: Big Fun

Printers can be big and cumbersome. This one is not. From the innards of the Canon SELPHY CP1300 Compact Photo Printer emerge beautiful (depending on your photo and the subject) prints in seconds, and it is virtually portable. Imagine bringing this to your next party or event and getting prints of everyone’s fun mobile phone photos on the spot. Make prints!

19. Tiny Light: Big Light

Tiny. Powerful. Rechargeable. Waterproof. Bright as a coastal lighthouse at full power. The LITRA LitraTorch 2.0 Photo and Video light packs 800 lumens of light—that is 4x more light than my super-bright cycling headlight—in a tiny little package that can slip directly from your holiday stocking into your camera bag and easily satisfy dozens of artificial-illumination needs. See our other on-camera lights here.

20. Wear It and Collect It

B&H Photo is a gigantic gift shop. Right? Well, there is a section of our website that is a gift shop inside a gift shop. If you are still drawing blanks, check out the Apparel & Collectibles section of the site, and enjoy the wide variety of unique photo gifts—from T-shirts to cuff links to coffee mugs to drink coasters to pins to ball caps to miniature models of famous cameras.

21. Make it Fun

Photography is many things, but one thing it should always be is: fun. Maybe your photographer lost their way, or maybe it is time to try something different. Well, look no further than the line of Lomography and Holga film cameras. Some cost more than others, but all are capable of serious fun photography. Experience medium format photography. Build your own 35mm camera. Take awesome photographs.

22. Don’t Forget

Everyone needs memory cards for their digital cameras. And, you can pack a ton of the SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO SDXC cards into a stocking. Also, an extra memory card reader like this Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual Slot or this Kingston Nucleum 7-in-1 USB Type-C Hub are always nice to have—take it from someone who has bought more than one card reader at a premium price while traveling from home.

23. So Old-School

What photographer doesn’t need film? Well, the digital photographer does not, but what about that family member or close friend who has an old film camera on the closet shelf? Give them a great surprise, and a happy one, with a package of Kodak Porta 400 color or Tri-X black-and-white film. You could be the one that causes them to fall back in love with the type of photography they left behind, for right or wrong, years ago. If you want to give a gift that has the power to change someone’s creative and photographic life and get them out of the digital dungeon: think film.

24. The Best Gift Idea EVER

You cannot go wrong with the B&H Gift Card! I know there is a stigma associated with gift-card giving, but I firmly believe that it is one of the most thoughtful gifts one can get someone. And, if you don’t know if you should get a physical gift card or the electronic version, I have done exhaustive reviews of them here and here, respectively.

What are your ideas for last-minute photography gifts? Do you have any questions, or need a custom shopping idea? Let us know below, in the Comments section.