These photos were done for a wonderful client in celebration of completing grad school. The park we agreed on was Kinder Farm Park which was a great decision and a location I will try to get clients out to again sooner rather than later.
Parks are your friend. I repeat parks are your friend. Often they have numerous angles you can approach a photo session from while still delivering a wide variety of backgrounds and space, so you aren’t pushed out by crowds or even other photographers. That stated there are some things to keep in mind when working on parks. First and foremost – you want to understand if you need to get a permit and if so, how to do so. This will take research on your part and your milage will vary as not all parks make it clear as day what their professional photography policies are. Second, even with a permit you and your clients are on the park property as guests. Everyone else on the park property has just as much right to be there as you so just be patient if an area you want is occupied or better yet go some where else and check back later.
As for the session itself, gates, walls, trees, and benches are all great places to start. I should probably take a step back here and explain; you will know where these are as you will arrive early just to reality check everything and plan your path. It is a lot easier to keep momentum in a photo session if you know where you are going. You can do a point A to point B approach or a big loop but just be sure you have a few stop off points for photos and enough so you can be flexible in case one of your spots is occupied by the time you get there.
Finally, when you are doing the photo session, check the backgrounds. You might need to adjust angles to avoid having to edit out distracting background objects or people. Modern photo processing software is amazing but the less time you have to spend on it, the better as the faster you can return the photos to your client. That stated, it isn’t a race, you want to spend just enough time on them to do the job right but not so much time on them that you start to see imaginary flaws because you are overly focused on stuff no one but you will ever see.