Photographing outdoors in the freezing cold with bare hands is not fun. I made a trip to Brooklyn Bridge Park in February of 2009 without a pair of gloves and set up my tripod and camera to make this shot at 9:15 PM:

And I was gone shortly after the following frame, which is timestamped 9:41 PM. It might have taken longer to drive home than it did to shoot.

Not only was it cold out, but the wind coming off the East River made the camera body ice cold to the point where I didn’t even want to touch it. I remember waiting impatiently for the long exposure to finish so I could grab my gear and get the hell out of there.

A short time later I started looking for a good pair of gloves to use for outdoor cold weather photography. Good photography gloves need to keep you warm while making it at least somewhat simple to feel and operate the camera’s controls. There are some brands made specifically for photographers, where tips of the index finger and thumb flip off. I haven’t used them but the concept seems to defeat the purpose of keeping your digits warm in the first place.

I looked at jogging gloves since they’re all very thin. The first pair I tried out was this pair of Adidas Sprint Running Gloves:

They were very thin which made it easy to operate a camera, but also meant they didn’t do the greatest job at providing warmth. The material is very sleek which makes gripping the camera securely a little difficult, and using the camera strap an absolute necessity.

Recently I picked up these Under Armour Fleece Gloves:

They fit very well and the construction seems conducive to both staying warm and feeling the camera controls. The back of the glove is fleece, while the inside fingers and palms are made from Under Armour’s thinner “ColdGear” fabric, whatever that is.

The palms are also covered with little silicon UA logos which make it a little more grippy than the Adidas gloves. I still wouldn’t hold the camera with these gloves without also using the camera strap though.

Another feature which I didn’t immediately notice is a hidden pocket on each glove. You might be able to put a memory card or two in their plastic cases and store them in your gloves.

The weather is getting colder now, so over the next few months I’ll find out whether these Under Armour gloves are any good for cold weather photography.