Steady As You Go (March 2026)

One of my early concerns about having Parkinson's was how it was going to impact my photography. 

Pair of Razorbills getting to know each other again after a winter at sea

I had pictured my retirement involved a lot of time striding (ambling?) across remote coastal headlands carrying a camera and a big lens, when the consultant started talking about 'degenerative neurological condition' and I suddenly could see the stiffness and tremor (in the arm I use to fire the camera shutter) whisking away my plans.  

The meds used to treat Parkinson's may not have evolved much in the last few decades, but fortunately camera technology has.  

The switch to digital cameras means that I never need to change films in the field, and I can shoot several thousand images before needing to swap memory cards.  More recently image stabilisation in both the camera and the lens has significantly reduced the impact of camera shake, and I haven't yet had to get into the serious gyroscopic gimbals that get used in taking pictures from boats and helicopters.  All this technology (and particularly the switch to mirrorless cameras) has also allowed cameras to get smaller and lighter.  A few years ago I would have carried one camera and several lenses, these days I think nothing of carrying two cameras each already set up with a lens - the plan being to reduce the amount of 'lens juggling' I do during the day.

My one serious remaining issue with cameras these days is that they are all right-handed - there is an assumption that the photographer will (assuming they're not using a tripod) hold the weight of the camera & lens in the left hand and fire the shutter with the right.  My tremor - and slow movement - is (at the moment) limited to my right hand, so I'm fine to let my stable left hand hold the camera and lens, and to try any not let any shake from the right hand ripple it's way into the optics.  The stabilisation technology goes a long way to do this, but what it can't do is help with when to press the shutter.  My right-hand reaction time is slow (and getting slower), so I struggle to 'capture the moment' - not really a problem with landscapes, but more of an issue with wildlife photography.  My current approach is to set the camera to take a short burst of images in the hope that from experience and with a little bit of luck I'll be there to 'capture the moment'.  And enthusiastic editing will deal with the many images that don't make the mark.

In my photography calendar the high point is the few months each year when the sea birds (particularly the auks - puffins, guillemots and razorbills) return to the Shetland cliffs to breed, feed and fledge their young.  March marks the start of the season, which typically runs through to July.  These five months are the time when my biggest, heaviest lens gets used - in late summer it gets laid away for its winter hibernation.   In the Spring (about now!) the lens gets cleaned up and (since my diagnosis) I start worrying about how well I'm going to be able to handle the 'big lens' this year.  

The first 'big lens' day of the year was this week - when the razorbills (a particular favourite of mine) returned to the cliffs around Sumburgh Head, at the south end of the Shetland Mainland.  I think the pictures used in this post have turned out OK, maybe I'll be able to get away with it for another season!

So far it's just the guillemots and razorbills that are back on the cliffs, hopefully the puffins will be back soon.

Razorbill at Sumburgh Head, Shetland

Razorbill at Sumburgh Head, Shetland

Guillemot colony at Sumburgh Head, Shetland

Guillemot colony at Sumburgh Head, Shetland




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