7 Photo Oriented Gift Ideas for Christmas

Photography is known for it's versatility and endless use. Why not take advantage of this for your Christmas gifts this year? Hear are some ideas that will help you check out that list and take advantage of all the services your photographer can provide. Check also "7 Tips To Choose The Right Photographer".

1. Family Session: Perfect for Grandmas. Either with them or without them, they'll love to have these images as keepsakes for years to come. Have a family photo session with as much family as you want and gift her a beautiful family album (I personally prefer outdoors than studio sessions; it gives your album that extra "humph" of special). Your photographer can design the perfect album for her, UV protected and customized with all the best images from your session. You can create the title or leave it all to your photographer.

2. Gift Certificate: Ideal all those friends and family members who are picky. Your photographer can customize a gift certificate for you, from value to sessions. You just have to ask!

3. Beauty Session: is the perfect gift for her. Why? Because she will be pampered and beautified from head to toes and on top of that she'll be photographed looking hot! It's the ideal gift to show her how beautiful she is (we as women need reassurance from our significant other, believe me, is always a mood lifter to hear it from you!), empower her and help her be more self confident. 

4. Boudoir session (Which also works as a great Valentine's gift). It's a win-win for both of you. YOU get to wear beautiful lingerie (great excuse to go shopping for yourself!) and HE gets a private keepsake of sexy you for his eyes only. He'll feel very flattered that you did it for him and well, he might want to see that new lingerie piece worn live. Your photographer will make you feel comfortable and can design a beautiful mini album with a sober flat colour cover to hide what's inside, already packed to give.

5. Model Experience: Perfect for children of all ages. Girls will like to feel like models for a day and boys will enjoy a session tailored to what they like doing (or want to be). These staged-fashion editorial kind of session will make them feel special, empower them in their uniqueness and have a blast while play pretending, no matter the age (and let's be honest, what teenager would't like super awesome photos of themselves to show to friends?).

6. Maternity or newborn sessions: When pregnant the mind gets busy with all kinds of planning/nesting/financial projects and when the baby is born, all mommy wants to do is rest and be with him/her. Among all these is easy for her to forget about the importance of immortalizing these precious milestones through photos. A maternity and newborn session is a perfect gift for her that will last for generations. Your photographer can create a bundle of these two (which most of the time will save you money) and if you want to go a notch higher, you can add an album to the package and/or a canvas print for baby's room. Mommy will be forever grateful!

7. Photography art: It can be a DIY or bought from your favourite photographer. Best if it's a big format and already framed, mounted, canvased or even printed on metal. Most photographers (including your family photographer) have artistic images they do in their own time. You can ask to view these to choose one and he/she will get it ready or you can commission something specific. Do consider your photographer's style to account for what you might expect from them. You can always ask for referrals or browse for a photographer to find the right fit for what you're looking for.

As you can see, there's many options for gifting through photography and best of all, these are gifts that will last forever. Each one has album option, cards, frames, magnets and all other kinds of presentations that your photographer can help you with. All you have to do is ask :)

Bye for now!

FELA

The Pebble Analogy

I Alef Seladi am feeling today like a pebble on the shore. So many of us hopefully waiting for the hand that will find us and throw us into the river where amazing travels and adventures begin; where dreams come true and we are useful. But if you're on one of the bottom layers of pebbles, the chances of being chosen are lowered. I feel as one of those bottom pebbles; with lots of promise and talent to be the perfect fit for that hand that's looking for me but yet the hand gives up after searching on the surface and conforms with one of the top pebbles even if it's not that great, but "it'll do". 


I have been living in this new city for almost 2 months now; yes, it's a short time but I'm yet to have a job as a photographer. I'm full of determination, imagination and creativity; it literally floods my mind everyday to a point I have to write it or draw it down. Not to brag but I AM talented. Years of studies and practice in theory, arts, inspiration, aesthetics were not in vain. Years of exercising my eyes every day to learn to REALLY see the world are not to be taken lightly; I literally have a trained eye for beauty.


The competition is vast but they're not all good which is sad. I feel frustrated by the concept of beauty this city has. Where is it anyway? It's as if the hand looking for a perfect flat and shiny pebble chooses a roundish one that looks more like it came out of an animal and believe, actually believe, it will work to bounce on the water. I have met amazing photographers in this small time and they all suffer with the same situation. How can art boost in a city that does not have the eye to choose among the best? I have seen it happening not only in photography but all kinds of art. Well, I think dance it's an exception. But it seems more like a popularity contest rather than a talent show; believe me, the best ones never win popularity contests.


We, the professional, passionate and dedicated photographers are here, looking for you, waiting for you. But the first step is yours to take; to choose us, to trust us. To really dig your hand into that pile of pebbles to find the one you wished for. We do our best to yell, stretch our hands, jump and shake to get to the surface but it won't matter if you don't train your eyes as well. Hope I get found. I've been screaming but no results yet and my savings are slowly disappearing... I'll have to make drastic changes if I want to stay in this city. I HAVE to stay in this city; I sacrificed everything for it. This has to work because I can't simply go back.