Bad Ideas

In the spirit of opening presents before you're supposed to, I've been playing with my new digital camera that my fiance got me for my birthday (even though my birthday isn't until May). I'm going to be looking for things to photograph, so everyone better close your curtains and blinds.

Just kidding. Really.

I'm reminded of my days back in school when I was taking a photography class; for every one good idea you have for a project, you probably have a half-dozen stinkers that never made it off the ground.

One of my ideas was to take a series of black & white photos of varioius kinds of roadkill. It would have a lot of visual punch, plus it would make a statment about man's callous inhumanity to our furry friends. The only problem is that the roadkill you typically see in this area (possums, raccoons, etc.) are usually on the always-busy freeways. It's just wasn't very safe for me to stop my car on the freeway and try to get some good shots of dead animals.

See? Bad idea.

Another idea I had was to take a series of photos of different parts of a gutter of one of the major streets going through Oakland. It would start at the more affluent, well-kept neighborhoods and run all the way down to the more seedy, run-down parts on the other side of town. The project would show the contrast between the sparkling clean world of the rich versus the filth and piles of refuse of the not-so-rich.

I did a little research on the street first, and you know what I found in the gutters? Gutter water. That's it. I discovered that all gutters look the same. No story to be found here.

Yep, bad idea.

So once again I have a camera in my hand, so look out. Maybe I'll come up with some better subject matter this time. Warn your pets.