Take your political opinions to the Attic, please. I would request that you do that regardless of the opinion you expressed. Otherwise, the poisonous political atmosphere will dominate everything here and make discussions about photography close to impossible. We are inundated with political insanity everywhere we turn. Let's have this place be a refuge from all of that, shall we? Talk about photography and take the politics somewhere else. There is no shortage of places to rant about politics. This is a simple matter of following the rules and respecting the others here, both of which seem to have fallen out of favor. Thanks in advance for your consideration of this matter.

Mike

brooklyn-camera, I sent you a PM regarding your condition and do hope you are encouraged by what I shared. At 74 I have chronic Ataxia possibly caused by MS - awaiting further testing & diagnosis.

There are so many folks here on SM affected by similar disabling conditions. I am so very much encouraged by what I read from the posts by these fellow SM photographers. We don't give up do we? We keep on pursuing our love of photography ... no matter what. I have been relegated to very limited hiking and walking and have been shooting mostly from my pick-up truck. There certainly are limits to this method, but I can still compose and push the shutter button!

Hats off to those SMers and other fellow photographers out there who keep on going when the going gets tough.

Our ability to remain upright is a pretty amazing thing. Perhaps understanding it will help you figure something out. We use three mechanisms to be able to stay upright - to know what way is up and what way is down. ONE: visual cues - you can see the floor/ground, walls, etc. TWO: our inner ear tells us when we are moving and what direction we are going, and perhaps helps figure out what way gravity is pulling us. THREE: "proprioception" - Our brain gets constant feedback from our peripheral nerves about where our hands are and where our feet are, how much pressure is on our feet, if we are leaning and putting more pressure on one foot than the other, the front of the feet, etc.

The key is that TWO out of those three have to be working for us to be able to stand upright and to walk without falling down. So - the most common consequence of this is when someone has neuropathy and their feet are numb, they need to always have a nightlight on - getting up in the dark can result in a bad fall.

So - what you are trying to do is to take your eyes off the ground or horizon at the same time you are standing - in your case this will be the recipe for a fall. So - how can you compensate? Assuming that your inner ears are working and that you do not have vertigo as well... You need to either not take your eyes away from the ground/horizon - hard to take good photos that way - or find another way to feel the ground (or a wall). The best solution is to figure out a way to get feedback that your feet aren't giving you. A monopod may help, but having just one point of contact with the ground might not be enough. Sitting is probably the most rational answer - taking a sturdy walker with a seat that you could sit on when you need to put your camera up to your eye would be a big help. If there is a wall of fence that you could lean against, that would probably work for you as well.