25°48'13.5"N 80°12'12.2"W
I was once taught that most people rarely look up. Walking down a sidewalk, the majority of people will either look down at their feet or straight ahead, careful to avoid eye contact. I have had three experiences which confirmed this and really stuck with me. First, as a photographer, next, walking to an Oakland Bart Station, and finally while I was up a tree.
During the summer of 2002, I participated in a study abroad program for our Fine Arts department. The program was specific for photo majors and I was one of about 12 students that traveled to Paris, France. During the second day, I was walking past the Paris Opera house with 2 other photographers. I stopped, keeled down and focused my camera on a gentleman reading a newspaper. I sat there for about 3 minutes waiting for a pigeon to fly off the statue next to him and hoping to get the bird in flight (which I did!). During that same time, a tour bus was unloading behind me. At some point, I don’t know when because neither of the photographers with me bothered to take a picture, one of the passengers noticed me pointing my camera up to the Opera House. He walked right up behind me, pointed his camera in the same direction and snapped a shot. I noticed it out of the corner of my eye but didn’t think much of it until the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, person did the same. By the time I had taken the shot, at least 8 people had stood behind me and taken a picture of the front of the Opera House. Fortunately, the streets of Paris during 2003 were much safer than the streets of Oakland during 2008.
At the time, I was living in a warehouse on Filbert street in West Oakland but working at the Academy of Art University in the Financial District of San Fransisco. To get to work, I would drive over to the West Oakland Bart station and ride across the bay. Even through I was only about 7-8 blocks away, it was safer, especially at night, to park within 3 blocks and drive home. One very bright and sunny morning, I parked on Mandela Parkway and started walking the three or so blocks to the station. However, I was looking straight into the sun and forgot my sunglasses, so with my hand covering my eyes and my head down I proceeded up the street. I was quickly reminded how dangerous it was to walk with my head down by a group of young men shouting at me to remember where I was and watch were I was going. Fortunately, their comments were out of concern and not because they sensed an opportunity.
Finally, as part of a wilderness survival training class I took, I was taught that climbing a tree can be helpful to get a lay of the land, orientate your direction, look for food. When I tried this, I also noticed it was a great place to watch people as none of the rest of the group noticed me in the tree for quite sometime. by contrast, when standing on a street corner the traffic signals are placed just above eye level in relation to the button to activate the signal in, i suspect, an effort to get people to at least stop and look across the street before stepping off the curb. Once you have them stopped, if you ever want to make someone wonder, just point your camera up!