Photography gifts for the Etsy online craft seller

If you're shopping for someone crafty that already or might sell their work on Etsy, taking a good product photo will be a big help to their business. A small light tent like this one solves a lot of lighting and background problems for them. It has a nice smooth background paper. The white sides of the light tent diffuse the light to eliminate harsh reflections. It comes with two small lights, which help eliminate shadows and get the color right.

iPod Touch - Much more than an MP3 player

If you haven't taken a close look at the iPod Touch, you might still be under the mistaken impression that it's just a fancy MP3 player. But it's so much more. With built-in WiFi support and the Safari web browser, it's a very useful portable web browser. I know several people that blog with theirs when they're travelling. With the iTunes store (and free access at Starbucks) you can buy more than music. I know a few people that no longer have cable television and buy season passes for their favorite television shows. The 3.5 inch widescreen is plenty for most shows. With the opening of the App store, more and more toys, utilities, and games are showing up every day. It's a lot like getting a great pocket-sized laptop for under $250.

Vex Robotics

For the more serious robot hobbiest, Vex makes two kits, the Vexplorer (partnered with Revell) and the full-blown Vex kits. The Vexplorer is a great introductory kit because it has all the parts to build a radio-controlled bot with a wireless color camera and a gripping arm. At the moment, the $300 kit is selling for under $125. This is an awesome deal. The same robotic kits are starting to be used for a lot of engineering school challenges. The more full-blown Vex kits start at $300 to $500.

Figure Drawing Lessons - The Structure of Man

I came across RivenPheonix's The Structure of Man the other day and am really impressed. It's a human figure drawing class on video. There are a lot of very positive reviews of it. The whole first 17 minute lesson is on YouTube and I think the first minute of all the other lessons are on there too. Under $50 for 43 hours of figure drawing lessons is quite a bargain. Perfect for a budding artist or comic fan.

Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story

This 20in. A Christmas Story Leg Lamp by NECA is a genuine prop replica from the beloved holiday classic! No Christmas is complete without the family sitting down to watch Ralphie's misadventures. Now you can light up the living room with a comical leg lamp, just like the one in the movie! And you don't have enter any sweepstakes to get it.

Or there are Leg Lamp T-Shirts, Leg Lamp Light Lite Strands, Leg Lamp Large Christmas Stockings, and Leg Lamp Christmas Ornaments.

Asus EEE PC Mini Laptop

The hottest geek gift this Christmas season is the Asus EEE PC mini laptop. Selling at only two to three times as much as a Nintendo DS or cheaper than the Wii that you can't find, the EEE is a useful tiny lightweight laptop for around the house or on the road. There is a growing line of EEE accessories available too.

Photo gift ideas for the eBay seller

It seems like everyone sells stuff on eBay. If you're shopping for a big eBay seller or even one just getting started, a great gift could help their business. I'd start with a good book on taking photos for eBay. This one is full of tips on how to take photos that create the ones that evoke the "I must have this" feeling.




One of the best tips for taking photos that sell is to use for selling tips is to use a light tent kit. This eliminates shadows, reflections, junk backgrounds, camera shake, and all sorts of other problems.