Resolved:

1. Still life/tabletop, likely incorporating digital elements, either compositing separate images, possibly rendering original elements. The latter would depend on my ability to produce satisfactory renders. Shot on 4x5", or i may wimp out and go 645 instead, then scanned. Lit with tungsten, I'm not so good with flash.
2. I have been playing around with the theme of alchemy for some time now. It's a topic i find interesting, and have been meaning to investigate for a while. It's an intriguing field, clearly from an era long past. The melange of science and religion just don't happen like it used to. However, I've recently come to the conclusion that it is too arcane a topic to focus solely on. People aren't familiar with it beyond transmuting lead into gold, and it's not like this is going to be a how-to guide. So...
3. ...I think I may have to distill the things about the topic I find interesting (mankind's pursuit to understand/improve upon nature) and in cobbling together a symbolic language, perhaps include some of the more interesting themes from alchemy, and perhaps similar pursuits, both more and less recent. Now this leads to yet another problem, and on to the (yes, it is possible) even less resolved aspects.

I'm not sure how to tackle the false man/nature dichotomy. I mean, it's all nature. The concept of mankind, safe in its cocoon of technology on one side, the ravages of the outside on the other is just... ridiculous. So, I suppose one way to address that is to have mankind seeking to improve/understand itself as part as the more stereotypical "nature". Not just looking at trees (etc) under magnifying glasses, but things more emblematic of "humanity".

And... breathe out.

Time for some delicious mini-wheats and a few chapters of Kavalier & Clay before sleeps.