Wednesday, January 18, 2012

An essential winter camera accessory

I admitted earlier this week to being a cold-weather wimp when it comes to riding.
The same applies to outdoor photography. I cannot take pictures when I'm cold. 
So how does this blog survive through the winter, you ask? Because of these:

My Finger Fuzz Flip Mitts. I saw them in a Sahalie catalog and couldn't order them fast enough (and they are not paying me to say this). Here's the link. I've worn other kinds of fingerless gloves and flip mittens, but these get two thumbs, and two index fingers, up – which are all required to operate the dials and buttons on a DSLR camera, which is what makes these mittens perfect for taking pictures in winter.

But before I ramble on about these mittens, let me focus your attention elsewhere:


This combination of lens and camera takes fingerprints. 
(I cropped the picture above from the picture above it, and both versions are straight out of the camera.) 
And, yes, my hands are very dry. But my point is...actually I don't know what my point is other than I'm really having fun with this camera. 
A few of you have asked me about the settings I'm using, and all I can say about that so far is I keep changing them. Once I settle on some favorites, I'll be happy to share. Meanwhile, for all of you new D7000 users, my best suggestion is to go to this link at kenrockwell.com, wherein he explains the hows and whys of his settings. You will learn so much your head might explode, but it's a million times more informative than the user's manual.

Where was I? The Flip Mitts are made from the softest, warmest fleece I've ever worn. 
And little magnets keep the flap out of the way when you need to use your fingers...


...for important things like de-goobering eyes...



...and scratching your horse's itchy, shedding back.



So maybe the only downside to these Flip Mitts is their powerful attraction to horse hair. 
I'm not going to hold it against them because they are washable and perfect in every other way.

15 comments:

  1. Because I can't stand for my hands/fingers to get cold, I searched the internet last year and found a pair of gloves like yours. Absolutely fantastic!

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  2. The gloves seem to be perfect. I will add such a magnet to my self-knitted ones to get higher comfort while doing photos. Good design!
    I love my Canon but.... can you rotate the display of your Nikon? I can´t do that and would know if that is a feature really to miss.

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  3. I didnot realize that horses are so hairy eh!

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  4. Aaannd, that is the reason I run screaming from anything fleece!!! A blanket on the bed=cat hair. Throw or pillow on the sofa=dog hair. Jacket, vest, mitts=horse hair. OMG--they're SHEDDING!!!!!

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  5. Did the glove/mitts come with the "retractable" thumb? Mine have the fingers available, but the thumb is fixed. I wear silk glove liners (because I have the coldest hands in the world) which still allow me to use the camera and unhook leashes, and find thinks in my fanny pack.

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  6. de-goobbering eyes is the best..............!
    ~~Rain

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  7. Great idea for the gloves. I bet they'd work equally well on cold violin playing fingers during brisk, cold outdoor fall weddings. (Note to self!)

    I have a favorite dry hand cream to recommend to you. It's called "No-Crack" Super Hand Cream, and my favorite one is their 'day use'. It's lightly scented. The night use one smells like medicine and I think it's unpleasant. They also have a no fragrance cream as well, but I like the light scent of this one. It's made in LaCrosse, WI and is the best I have ever found for dry hands and fingers.

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  8. I'm ordering a pair. I have some for fishing... made out of some waterproof/resistant fabric, but I have a weird nerve placement or something and my pinkie and ring finger begin to hurt...terribly. I'm thinking the fleece would be much kinder!
    Don't you love the hair magnet qualities of fleece? Hmmm, maybe we could market an animal shedding cloth out of fleece... just hold it near the animal (cat, dog, horse, donkey) and the loose hair will simply jump to the cloth. I mean... that's what happens when I wear a fleece vest or jacket... so why not?!!

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  9. Just sent your fingerprints to my friends at the FBI - inquiry results to be forwarded ASAP. Giggle, giggle. Resolution is phenomenal!

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  10. I tried some of Ken's settings the other day. Made my chickens look like they were glowing in the dark. LOL Figure I'll save the super intense saturation for Halloween otherwise he has great advice. I need some of those mittens though because I can't spend much time out there in the cold either. I'm only so dedicated to the hobby.

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  11. Just be careful with those magnets around magnetic sensitive devices. They can scramble all the zeroes & Ones and make a real mess of a nice set of data ... PICTURES?

    Udder cream is my cracked hand / feet cream of choice. Goes on non-greasy and doesn't smell mediciney (is that a word)?

    Years ago when I use to ski, someone bought me a gift of mittens with a side zipper. A permant glove liner was inside the mitten ... and you could get your fingers out to do tasks that were not possible with mittens. It also let me ventilate the hands when they got too warm. Still have them, but it's not cold enough to wear them most of the time.



    Mary Ann in NC

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  12. I don't know if I could expose my fingers like that in this cold, but if you say they're cozy and warm, I'm sold.

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  13. I have been using these for years. Thanks for the reminder that I need to order more while they are still available!

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  14. Great mitten/gloves!

    Shedding already!!! LOL

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