You did it again, didn’t you? Ever single year, you tell yourself that you will start your holiday shopping early and here we are, one week before the big day and you’ve barely begun. (I’m actually giving myself this lecture, by the way). So now you find yourself (myself) with one weekend left before Christmas and you are on the mad scramble for a gift.
Luckily, you still have some time to order online and pay exorbitant rates for your procrastination. Check out our following gift guides for ideas:
- Budget-friendly Holiday Gifts Under $50
- Delight Photographers With These 8 Holiday Gifts Under $100
- Wow A Photographer With These Gifts For $200 Or Less
- Tanya’s Gift Guide For Photographers, $250+
- Photography Gifts From $500 You’ll Be Loved For Giving Or Love to Receive
But for those that don’t want to pay three times the amount to ship your items, here are a few last minute gift ideas for your photographer giftee, but next year, for goodness sake, get your act together.
Even if the people you need to shop for are not photographers, CreativeLive offers courses in everything from sewing to business to lettering to health and fitness and more. Why not get them an online course to better themselves through education? Right now, all classes on CreativeLive are 40% off. Click here to see their full listing of courses.
Here are a few I recommend:
- Working With Flash (Pye Jirsa)
- Skin 101: Lighting, Retouching, and Understanding Skin (Lindsay Adler)
- The Power of Body Language (Vanessa Van Edwards)
- Heroic Public Speaking (Michael Port)
Well, you knew I’d mention SLR Lounge courses, duh. You can’t go wrong with the gift of foundational education for the photographer enthusiast in your life. Or even consider gifting yourself with some of our workshops. Everything in the store is 30% off right now using the code: happyholidays30
Might I recommend:
- Lighting 101
- Photography 101 (my 11 year old is watching this to learn photography)
- Lighting 201
Ebooks
If the person you need to gift is a reader with an eReader like a Kindle, ebooks are the way to go. It’s easy to gift a book; just look for the “Give As A Gift” button on Amazon.
Here are some I’ve read this year and I recommend (not photography-related since I read photography related stuff all day for work!)
- My Fight Your Fight (Entertaining and inspiring autobiography of Ronda Rousey)
- The School of Greatness (Step by step principles to become great by Lewis Howes)
- The Red Queen (Victoria Aveyard – YA fiction for those that like Dystopian novels)
- Dorothy Must Die (Danielle Page – Wizard of Oz with a twist, where Dorothy is evil)
Subscription Services
The popularity of subscription boxes have been on the rise the last few years. I love opening the mailbox to get a box of goodies each month and so will your loved one. Check out my favorites:
- Photo Box – for hobbyists, amateurs, and pro photographers, get a box of fun and inspiring photography related items each month
- Birch Box – a box of beauty sample for ladies, this is one of the oldest subscription based boxes which launched the trend!
- Trunk Club – know someone who needs help in the style department? Trunk Club is like a personal shopper in a box.
- Barkbox – for the 4-legged friend in your life, Barkbox is one of my very favorite subscription box; it comes with toys and goodies for a lucky pup.
Heifer International
Give the gift of a goat or cow for Christmas…well, not to your loved one, but to someone around the world in need. Heifer International is an organization that helps fight hunger and poverty with the goal of helping families achieve self reliance. Giving a gift of a water buffalo in your friend/loved one’s name can help a family in Cambodia plant five times the amount of crops than planting by hand. They also provide milk and enough manure which can be used to power cook stoves and lamps.
How many of you are done with your Christmas shopping? Don’t comment because then you’ll make me feel bad. If you’re with me and have waited till now, let’s see a show of solidarity in the comments below.