Is that what you do, Isaac?
My modest SLT-A35 - with battery, modest fixed-length 35mm or 85mm, and lens hood - only weighs 24oz. I carry that camera in-hand for 5 or 6 hours without tiredness.
Even with camera in-hand, I seem to have less difficulty with "the joy of being there" versus "looking for pictures" than a couple of years ago. I seem able to choose being there, without regret.
Intermittently I will see something and engage in an episode of
Taking the Photograph, but that feels less like an interruption and more like an addition. It's just that I'm starting to handle that camera, and those lenses, and that mini-tripod and tape and remote, and... more fluently ;-)