alternative gifts ideas: friends, and their kids

Photos: Maybe yes, maybe no.

My dad frequently prints photos as gifts, although often he will make a series of cards and give them along with high quality matching envelopes (people use them as thank you cards and for writing letters). The thing is...he is also a professional photographer. The photos are not the kind of work he does for pay, but they are still very nice photos and printed on nice paper. If you are doing a large print...I feel like you have to frame it, otherwise you are giving them something that will get bent/damaged or something that will require them to spend time/money having it framed. Also, random photos of national parks from your vacation are probably not great. Does the location have any meaning to the recipient? is it special in some way?
If you are a good photographer, what about framed portraits/photos of their kids? Parents love photos of their kids.

Donation: these always come off as kind of lame...