It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas…! We love Christmas time and we love recommending fun photographic gifts for our students to enjoy and to keep them inspired. We’ve put together an amazing list full of cameras, tripods, books and fun accessories that every young photographer will enjoy! Our gifts are for kids as young as 7 and as old as 16, I mean 19, I mean 16! We hope you enjoy looking through the list as much as we have putting it together – all items are Sharp Shots Approved!

Cameras

For ages 7-11, we LOVE and recommend the Nikon W150. It’s waterproof, shatterproof and full of fun camera settings. It’s a perfect entry camera for a kid as it allows them loads of freedom to use it (we fully endorse dunking it in puddles for AWESOME photos)

We also use them daily for teaching our workshops at schools and venues and can confirm they are indeed shockproof :).

Check out all the cool colours and further details here

For teens ages 12+, we’d suggest looking at the Nikon D3500. This is a great entry level DSLR, which will allow your teen to grow with their camera, learning more and more about the different settings as their photographic interests grows. They can also save up their pocket money for further lenses too!

This camera is great for the aspiring teen photographer that wants to blur their backgrounds and take stunningly sharp action shots. More details can be found here.

 

 

Lenses

If the young photographer is looking for a new lens for their DSLR, we’d suggest looking at these two options:

The Nifty Fifty or 50mm lens

This is a great lens as it allows the young photographer to make their subjects really stand out, blurring the backgrounds. Much more so than the kit lenses that are sold with the cameras. It’s also a great tool for understanding more about composition as they can’t zoom, they’ll have to walk back and forth to get closer or further away. It’s quite a compact lens and makes the DSLR’s feel much smaller and lighter.

Click here for the Nikon 50mm lens & Click here for the Canon 50mm lens

**As all camera models are different, we’d suggest double checking these lenses fit with the current camera before purchasing.

 

The Telephoto Lens (70-300mm)

If the young photographer likes photographing wildlife or sport, check out getting them a 70-300mm lens to help them to zoom into all the action. It’s a great addition to their camera bag and with the extra zoom, they won’t miss any of the action, they’ll now have to just choose what to photograph instead!

Click here for the Nikon 70-300mm lens & click here for the Canon 70-300mm lens

**As all camera models are different, we’d suggest double checking these lenses fit with the current camera before purchasing.)

Camera Accessories

Every photographer needs a fun camera strap! We thought these fun camera straps were ideal as they can be monogrammed and in the photographer’s favourite colour! There is no camera confusion any more with these cool straps. More info on the straps here.

 

 

 

A lightweight tripod is a great gift and something every photographer cherishes. The Velbon ex-440 is a full size tripod but light enough to go in a backpack and carry around all day. A great price too! More info here.

 

 

 

If you are looking for an even smaller tripod, we love the Gorilla pods as they are a great to use for long shutter speeds and compact enough to fit in a camera bag! Do make sure you buy the correct size for the camera that will sit on it – we’ve recommended the gorilla pod for DSLRS. We use them on the majority of our courses. More info here.

 

 

 

Photography Books

Our founder Lillie has written a book for kids based on all the fun things we do in our classes and clubs! All photos used are by our sharp shots photographers and there are 40+ activities to be inspired by and to do! A perfect gift for all young photographers! You can purchase the book on our Christmas vouchers page paired with a Christmas voucher and signed by Lillie or by itself on Amazon.

 

 

 

We are also a big fan of Henry Carroll’s book, this is great for teens who are looking to learn more about famous photographers and to demystify aperture & shutter speed. It’s a great “how to” for our older photographers. Click here for more info.
for more info.

 

 

 

 

Fun Stuff!

We love this puzzle by photographer Alma Haser. It’s actually a piece of art! She photographed identical twins separately, turned each twin’s photo into a puzzle and then combined the puzzle pieces! It’s so cool and will be perfect to bring the family together over the holidays. Click here to head to Alma’s amazing website.

 

 

 

 

 

We all need to print out more photographs, and this polaroid printer for mobile phones is amazing! It prints the photos out onto polaroid paper, making the images look instantly vintage and cool. And there are so many cool polaroid papers to choose from too! Oh, where to start! Click here to get started!

 

 

 

 

A perfect stocking stuffer – a TIN camera with sweets! A lovely accessory for any desk and paired with sweets, you can’t go wrong with this gift! Click here to find out more.

 

 

 

Gift Vouchers

We’ve got some amazing gift vouchers for young photographers that cover our online on demand and live workshops as well as our face to face workshops! Head over to our Christmas Gift Voucher page for more info.