This is not a repeat of my 10 gifts.  It doesn't even include any of the gifts from the 10 gift post.  And if you haven't read that post, go check it out and see that I actually give you a bonus gift idea.

TLDR; 

Protect your wallet, by protecting your photos with these two backup suggestions.

1. Subsription to Backblaze
2. 5TB External hard drive(s) (Affiliate link)

Have you ever lost files on your computer?  Have you lost everything on your computer?  I hope you never have.  If you are a photographer of any level, safeguards to prevent the loss of your photos should not be in question.  Not having backups of your photos can end in a really bad day and cost a lot of money to recover.  Here are some options if you are lucky.

• If the drive is still readable by your computer, the first step is to check the recycle bin for deleted files.  If they are there, you just dodged a bullet.
   
• If they are not in the recycle bin, you can recover data due to deletion or formatting with some tools from the internet that you can run yourself.  However, if you continue to use the drive the software will not be able to help you.  These tools can recover files that have not been written over.  So, the hint here is to not wait a long time before using one of these tools.
   
• A data recovery service can cost between 100 and 300 dollars PER HOUR but they cannot guarantee that any data will be recoverable.  So you may be out several hundred dollars without any photos recovered.
   
• If the drive no longer spins or is damaged somehow and you have a lot of money or the photos have enough value that you are willing to do some financing, then there are services that can take the drive apart and access the disks to retrieve data.  But this will be in the multiple thousands of dollars.

I think you are getting the point to have a backup (or two).  If you are a photographer, ask for one or both of these. If you can only get one of them, then go with Backblaze.  If you are purchasing this for a photographer friend ask them which they would like to have.

     1. Subscription to BackBlaze

The links I am providing to Backblaze are connected to my account and I will get a free month or two if you sign up.  It is not much, nor am I wanting much.  I would recommend the same even without the account link.  The reason I am sold on Backblaze is it is a true backup.  There are big-tech options like google drive, idrive, or one-drive.  But those are "sync" based, which means if you delete a file on your computer, the deletion will sync with the service.

Another plus for Backblaze is it is for unlimited storage.  All the big-tech storage has upper limits and will cost more to expand if needed.  There are also other services from Backblaze to help speed the backup or restore if the amount of data is really large.  (It took a month and a half for my data to be backed up, but it's there now).

     2. 5 TB External Hard Drive(s) (Affiliate link)

Purchase one or more additional hard drives that you can use as backups and keep at home.  If you are just getting started a 2 to 4 TB drive may be enough.  I would recommend 2 drives of the same size so you can have two extra copies other than what is on your computer.  The drawback to having the drives at home is a loss due to fire, flooding, theft, etc where the drives are destroyed or gone.  You could store the extra drive at a friend or relative's house, but that is very inconvenient and I doubt they will be kept current.  I keep both my extra drives at home and also use Backblaze.

The best recommendation is to use both for backups.