With Black Friday coming up and the holidays around the corner, you may already think about what presents you’ll buy your friends and family this year. If you have a partner or friend who is a landscape photographer, you might want to surprise them with a gift that could make their life just that little bit easier. I listed 5 great gift ideas you may consider when choosing that perfect photography present.

Wellies / rubber boots

Unlike most people, landscape photographers go out shooting when the weather is all but sunny. Grasslands covered in dew on a foggy morning, snow covered fens after a long winter night, idyllic water streams or waterfalls in a swampy woodland, beaches during high tide or even a storm… A lot of our favorite locations are wet and dirty, something you’d run away from as a normal person - but we’re not normal, as you know by now. Some hiking shoes are water-repellent enough to deal with these kinds of situations, but sometimes it’s just too wet even for them. Then a good pair of wellies or rubber boots can come in handy.

The wellies I use are these from Lemigo. I used them on my latest trips to the Belgian Ardennes to shoot some woodland rivers there. Because I was wearing wellies, I could stand in the middle of the water stream, instead of staying at the side of the water, which doesn’t always guarantee a great composition. Being able to stand in the water, I had more freedom in composing my images - as long as the water wasn’t deeper than the height of my wellies.

So a pair of good wellies might just be the perfect gift for your photographer friend, and may give access to a whole new range of compositions.

Head torch

As a landscape photographer, we often travel to and from a location when it’s still dark outside. A lot of these locations are so remote that there’s no lighting that can help us find our way.

Most smartphones today have a built-in torch, and although they can be useful when walking to a specific spot, they become a pain in the butt when you try to set up your tripod and camera. Therefore, a head torch is the best option to overcome this problem.

I use the Black Diamond ReVolt 350, but of course there are a lot of other options out there. I’d suggest to look for a head torch that has different brightness levels and an adjustable angle. Also a red light can be handy. If you’re out shooting in group, a red light won’t blind the others, which a white light might do.

Peak Design Capture

This is something I actually got from my girlfriend as a Christmas present a couple of years ago: the Peak Design Capture camera clip. I didn’t know the brand Peak Design before, but they have several other, very practical photography accessories as well.

The Peak Design Capture camera clip consists of two elements: a clip that you can attach to your backpack, bag, or belt, and a plate that screws into the bottom of your camera. The plate then locks into the clip with a quick-release button. With the Peak Design Capture, you always have your camera close at hand when you’re out. The clip and the plate are all-metal, and therefore very sturdy. Peak Design claims it can hold up to 90kg. I haven’t tested this, but it has never failed me in all these years I’ve been using it.

You can also take a look at the other accessories Peak Design has to offer, maybe you’ll find another gift in their product range that fits your friend’s needs.

Extension tubes

a macro image of blooming wild garlic — *With an extension tube you can get much closer to your subject, like blooming wild garlic in May.*

If your friend already has a dedicated macro lens, this gift may not be a good option. But if you want to give him or her the joy of macro photography without breaking the bank on an expensive macro lens, extension tubes might just be the perfect “golden mean”. You only have to know the mount of your friend’s camera.

An extension tube goes between the body and the lens. It’s not an optical element - it contains no glass. What it essentially does is getting the lens further away from the focal point. Therefore, you can get closer to your subject than the theoretical minimal focus distance of the lens, filling more of the frame with your subject. Sounds a lot like macro photography, right?

I’ve been using these extension tubes from Meike for a couple of years now, and they’re just great. Just be sure that the extension tubes have electrical contacts, so the lens can still communicate with the camera - which is important to set the aperture and use the autofocus, as well as having all EXIF data of the image. But if you’ve chosen the right extension tube, you will open a whole new world of creative possibilities for your friend!

Magazine or online subscription

As a landscape photographer, we always want to learn and expand our knowledge, enjoy the work of others, and keep up with the latest developments in photography. There’s a lot of information to be found online, but a lot of content is only available through a subscription.

Therefore a subscription to an online service, like Skillshare, may be a great gift. There are also a lot of magazines out there, online or on paper. When it comes to landscape photography, there are the UK based magazines Landscape Photography Magazine (only digital) and Outdoor Photography (not to be confused with Outdoor Photographer, which shut down earlier this year), but in the Benelux, where I live, you have Shoot, Zoom.nl, or Natuurfotografie Magazine. Most subscriptions come with a bunch of benefits, and as a subscriber you receive your physical copy on your doorstep days before it is available at the newspaper store.

Small things can make a big difference

Photography is often considered to be expensive. When it comes to the essential gear, like cameras, lenses, tripods, and backpacks, this is certainly true. But a photographer’s backpack contains more than that. Sometimes the smallest thing can make a big difference in a photographer’s workflow. Just remember: size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it that counts 😉 I’m sure that your friend will be overjoyed in receiving one of the gifts I listed above.

Let me know in the comments below which of the 5 gifts you chose to surprise your friend with. Or maybe you found another gift, and want others to know about it. I’m very curious about what you are putting under the Christmas tree this year!

I wish you and your family and friends wonderful holidays and a happy 2024!

5 great gift ideas for a landscape photographer