#camera gear

✱ PERSONAL GEAR

Compression gloves. The MVP of hanging on to a camera without swelling/pain. I don't find that I need gloves with grips, but you might prefer it.

Photography gloves. But if you're going out in really serious winter weather, you'll want glove liners or compression gloves + fold-back mittens, instead.

Wrist wraps (over the top of the compression gloves works great). I guess mine are discontinued, but for what its worth, this is what I use.

Rechargeable hand warmers. Again, mine doesn't seem to exist anymore, but this looks like its successor. Get one for each pocket unless you have...

A heated vest

Really Good Boots: Find some that don't bother your ankles. These are my go-to; YMMV. (Pair them with really good socks.) Update: disease progression means I've switched to something more supportive of my heels and arches. If that's you, too, then here's my pick.

✱ CAMERA GEAR

Panasonic Lumix GH7. Micro four-thirds cameras and their lenses are smaller and lighter than full frame mirrorless/DSLRs, which is better for my RA needs. It's also less expensive.

But, note that I started out (post-film) with the Canon M-series, a smaller, more affordable option which you can still buy used. Great for beginners. (I'm not sure what Canon replaced the M50s with.)

Camera strap. Personally, I like a cross-body setup. It doesn't bother my collar bones as much, and doesn't bother my neck at all. You can get cheaper ones than mine. I use it often enough that I wanted to be as comfortable as possible, and I want to be able to quickly switch between a strap and a tripod (otherwise I don't use my tripod enough). I've given away a lot of bad camera straps, so I chose to upgrade. Alternatively, here is the compatible camera clip I use while hiking.

Camera bag. I won't link to mine (though I love it), because it was wildly self-indulgent and I don't want to suggest you have to buy something expensive to make it work! For daily use, I use a medium-sized sling bag because I change lenses often, and this lets me swap without setting all of my gear down on the ground.

Camera backpack. If I'm going further afield, I'll switch to a backpack for shoulder pain, but I don't love mine for how inaccessible my gear is. I do have to set everything down with this one. Update: I went with an older 22L model of this bag for daily use and day hiking, and I've been very happy with it. I did add on these shoulder pads, but you might be fine without.

(If I'm hiking, I've got walking sticks and knee compression sleeves and compression gloves and wrist wraps, just for the record. In which case I tend not to also bring a tripod. But you could; it would fit.)

Travel backpack. My collar bones get swollen and tender pretty easily, so for travel I'll slide a camera cube into a proper backpack. This isn't my exact bag, but I think it's what replaced mine; my cube came with my camera backpack, but here's the kind of thing I mean. My smaller lenses fit (with soft cases) into the side pockets for easy access; you could use carabiners, but I don't prefer how insecure that feels.

Travel Tripod. Lightweight, super easy to use. Not heavy enough to withstand much wind, though.

Heavy Tripod. Harder to travel with, but worth it when conditions call for a more heavy-duty tripod, or one with a ball head (for better camera maneuverability). I keep mine in my coat closet for the owls. My travel tripod lives in the trunk of my car.

✱ BONUS GEAR: drones x accessibility

I really do recommend that if you have certain kinds of mobility or health issues, you consider getting a small drone (sUAV). I have a DJI Air 2S (which is being replaced by the 3S) which fits into a neat little pack for easy carrying. And to support this recommendation, a story:

For our honeymoon, my spouse and I roadtripped to the Spiral Jetty at the Great Salt Lake (en route to the 2017 solar eclipse). It was August. It was hot. And my joints were bent out of shape from coming down from a week in Tahoe, and I have history of seizures which can be triggered by heat, and as we walked further and further out I started feeling quite ill.

Since I did not want to have a Problem out there in the middle of nowhere, I walked back up to the parking lot and launched my small, quiet, unobtrusive DJI Spark from the tailgate of my car. I am one of those photographers who is very self-conscious about flying around people who may be bothered by it, which is why I'm clarifying small and quiet. There were very few people anyway, but at elevation, no one even knew it was there.

(The person in the center of the spiral is my spouse!)

Of course, if you're a National Parks nerd, you know that you can't fly in the parks. But, as with the Spiral Jetty, there are many beautiful places you can still go. And if you get out there and can't go very far, or you're just having a bad day, with a drone you still have options. And that means so much to me that my company is trying to form a nonprofit to help people like me get set up with non-commercial sUAVs. We'll see where that goes.

Don't worry, you don't have to hold the controller aloft like this. I was still setting up, didn't know I was being photographed.

These were taken a million years ago with an old, now-discontinued drone that only shot in JPG, because of how small it was. I've flown FPV drones since then, which does tend to trigger my vertigo, but I can see the incredible possibilities for being able to experience a place you can't physically get to, or only in limited ways -- because you could at least have these immersive goggles and a small aircraft to get you there. You know? It's not nothing. (But, of course, it's not for everyone.)