Finding and Pre-Planning Photoshoot Locations | South Florida

Finding the ideal location for your photo session can really be as hard or easy as you make it. Googling images based on the desires of the client (or yourself if you are the client) for example, "Beach Photo Shoot" or "(Your County) Park Photo Shoot" are good places to start. Often you will be able to see where others have gone before with examples of photos that were taken there. If you are looking for something specific based on a theme, you might want to search for something like "Lighthouses in (blah blah city)".
One of the reasons I like discovering new locations this way is because you also gain a better idea of the settings that are available in any given location. For example, I needed to find a natural, serene environment for a maternity session this past weekend. I simply searched Broward County Parks in the images area of google and then narrowed it down to Tree Tops Park in Davie. Perfect. Then I searched again for "Tree Tops Park Photo Shoot" and was able to see that there were many different opportunities for uniques backgrounds with stairs, benches, fallen trees,  a large tree stump along a path and even a boardwalk.
A second way I like to explore potential locations is to use Google Street View. This method gives you the ability to virtually walk down just about any location (that has a street) and see what it has to offer. I find this is a great way to search urban locations and even plan the flow of your shoot. I might determine that for an engagement session it would be nice to start at an ice cream shop and then move along the street, tuck into side alleys and then end up at the beach for some sunset shots. As a photographer it also helps to loosely layout your plan for the client so they can plan their outfit changes accordingly.
Here are a few photos from the aforementioned maternity session at Tree Tops Park in Davie.