Photos as gifts of appreciation

[tbarker13]

I generally do it for people who express an interest in a photo - or if I know I have photos of something that really interests them. (Italy, old cars, mountains, etc.)
My old boss (and still a good friend) emailed me last night asking for a print of river scene I shot a couple months ago. I love it when people do that.

 

[Argenticien]

Giving people photographs of themselves, and of those close to them, is an elementary courtesy.

I think the above is a far more reasonable standard than simply "Giving someone one of your own photos as a gift is pretty vain." Yes there's vanity risk if you're giving out (unsolicited) massive prints of something so edgy that not everyone may agree it's "art." But there are also some easy cases where no-one will think you're vain: For example, I recently made a few quick shots of our friends' baby as they were visiting while I was doing a test roll. Against odds, one pic happened to be good. I gave them a framed print of it, as a hostess gift a few weeks later when attending a dinner party at their house. As harried new parents who've had no time to frame anything, they were gushing about it (seemingly genuinely) as opposed to the pro-forma "oh, thanks" elicited by standard hostess gifts of flowers, wine, etc. And I just thought it was a good courtesy (as Mukul wrote) to give them a print since I had selfishly borrowed use of their kid for a test roll!

 

[Ronald_H]

Want to know what I did for my coworkers?

They admired one of my models so much, I had a 75x50cm poster printed of her.

Imagine that, a pretty girl poster in a room full of software developers 😀