The best Christmas gifts for the photographer on your list

Finding the right gifts for your friends and loved ones can be a challenge at Christmas time. Use these ideas to find a unique and useful gift perfect for the photographer in your life.

Displaying the perfect shot or showing a portfolio is important to photographers.

• Look for a beautiful photo frame that would look great in an office or living space.
• Albums are always useful for portfolio shots, and you could get a selection of photographs from an event bound into a gift book.
• Photos can transform even the most mundane objects, so consider getting a photo taken in a special place printed onto decorative mugs, pens and coasters.

Photographers always have gadgets aimed at enhancing photos or helping them take the perfect shot.

• Check out the camera your photographer has and then look for bags, filters and lens covers.
• Tripods are also handy, especially ones that can grip onto all kinds of surfaces and help take a solid photo.
• Some gadgets can operate a camera shutter remotely, and are another useful piece of equipment for the keen photographer taking a technical shot.
• Clamps that attach to most surfaces can aid a photographer in mounting a camera.

Gifting a photography course will help a photographer enhance his or her skills.

• Courses may vary from general techniques for an amateur to high-tech methods for the more advanced photographer.
• Subscriptions to a camera magazine are popular and can help a developing photographer learn more about the subject. There are also many books about photography.

Other practical gifts include straps, waterproof housing and power chargers to help travelling photographers. Rolls of gaffer's tape and packets of batteries are also very practical and sure to be used.

There is no shortage of gift ideas for the photographer on your shopping list. Just make sure you know the type of camera being used and you'll soon find all kinds of gadgets to entertain and delight a photographer on Christmas day.