What’s the perfect gift for a creative photographer? What do you ask for when your birthday comes around?

Me? I have too much stuff. By the time I turned 24 I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I no longer had to wait until my birthday or Christmas to get something I wanted. I worked hard for my money. So if I wanted something I bought it. That’s why I have boxes and boxes of junk that I wish I never bought. I could fly to the moon and back if I would have just invested all that money I wasted. Why did I buy all that crap? Why!!!!

Right. Anyway. The few things I do want but don’t buy remain in their un-purchased state because of political / environmental reasons or because they are too expensive. If they are too much for me to justify buying them, I definitely can’t ask a friend to drop the dough as a gift. So sets the dilemma in motion.

Several years in a row, when someone was throwing me a birthday party, I asked people not to bring gifts. Maybe it’s my controlling nature, my difficulty feigning joy at receiving something I don’t need, want, or have room for (stop crying Mr. Danny, I’m not talking about the wrought iron palm tree coat rack - I swear). Or maybe I’m just a total f’n a-hole - probably the latter. Either way, I’ve never really enjoy getting gifts. That’s why, like I said, I started asking people not to bring a gift. But people always brought gifts anyway. Hmm. What to do?

Well last year I came up with a potential solution: Ask for props. Yes, props, I say! Props for my fine art photographs. And the best kind of props: the ones you don’t have to find yourself.

I feel like if I only tap my conscious brain for ideas, I’m going to have a lot of the same ideas. Sorry, conscious brain, you’re great for helping me order a pizza, but for ideas I prefer your Goth cousin, the subconscious brain. Nothing brings him out from under that jet-black hair and heavy eye liner like a puzzle to solve. In fact, last week’s Nice Photo of the Week came out of prop gift I received for my birthday - the two masks on the right. Those masks helped me come up with the idea, an idea I probably would never have come up with on my own.

So how do you do it? The trick is to not tell people what props to get you. Sure it’s risky. You may end up with a clown wig, a used book about carpel tunnel syndrome, or a bag of rotting lemons. Well make clown-wig-lemonade if your wrists don’t hurt too much!

A few people may just feel lost or put upon. Remind them that no gift at all is perfectly okay with you. They’ll likely insist so set them on the right path. Say something like, “Anything with an interesting texture. A symbol with hidden meaning. Something that reminds you of your childhood.” Anything as long as it’s not too specific. Make them suffer for wanting to do something nice for you!

I strongly requested everyone to keep it under $25. They’re all very creative people; musicians, actors, comedians, writers, designers etc. And they have a healthy sense of competition, just like me. So they each wanted to bring the weirdest, funniest, or most interesting-est prop. This worked out great when I later forced myself to grow an idea out of their prop- um, seed.

As I got around to using each prop in an image, I gave the friend that had given it to me a nice print. It’s great to see how excited they are that I used their prop in an image. They’re happy. I get an image I never would have thought of otherwise. And no one has to return anything. Win. Win.

So the next time you’ve got a birthday coming up and someone asks you what you want what are you going to ask for?

Didn’t you just read this article? Ask for props.

Nice!

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