unsteady hands

     Most of the time my essential tremor doesn't impact my tasks. But in some things it is more evident: art, writing, and photography are a few such instances. When I attended an all day photography class with my oldest daughter, the professor had an immediate solution to my fuzzy pictures (and it wasn't a recommendation to have my daughters take over our family photography.) "You need a monopod" was his quick reply. I'm familiar with tripods, especially the bulky old school variety, but with 3 kids we already carry a lot of stuff everywhere we go and I liked the idea of something smaller before I even saw one for myself.

     It arrived before our trip to Washington DC, but with my husband's joking that closed it looked like a gun     which was followed by my playing that it was one, somehow the camera attached to it broke. So be careful- it isn't a toy. Though gun wasn't mentioned in the reviews I read before my purchase, others mentioned that it was strong enough to use as a cane. I now have a new camera attached to my gun cane monopod and am enjoying capturing pictures like this one taken while we were enjoying our breakfast on the front porch swing.

     It didn't turn me into an expert photographer, but you can see the way the bird turned to prevent attack and fly away. You can even read the words on the bottom of the hummingbird feeder. For me, the monopod has been a great solution for clearer pictures.


   

     This is the model I chose- the Oben ACM-2400 4-Section Aluminum Monopod. (It was with the camera attached to it that my husband said it resembled a gun, might not be allowed in some DC museums...) By the way, there were TONS of tripods (though I didn't notice any monopods) all around supporting cameras the evening we got to see Capitol Hill. As my camera had broken then I didn't have the monopod with me.