Jingle bells, jingle bells, our keys and coins jingle in our purses.
‘Tis the season to be jolly…and to holiday shop! 
In the spirit of the holidays, I went on a plaza photo crawl this month.
My personal experience is I look at what the front of the store looks like on Maps photos to find it easier before I visit. I imagine others may be doing the same. Continuing to add more storefront photos helps to add that visual navigation aid to other stores.
In the article below, I describe highlights and my tips from thephotowalks, and how I practiced things I learned from @MortenCopenhagen 's and @TerryPG 's photography tutorials, and @JanVanHaver 's latest podcast on photo views.
These photos were taken on the afternoon of Black Friday- which is the Friday after Thanksgiving.
If you live in the US, bookmark this date as a “golden hour” for plaza photography. With no people or cars to obstruct, I could easily walk from store to store and take photos.
At some stores, to ensure the entire sign and entrance both showed, I angled my camera diagonally. Where the sign or building was extra long, I used landscape mode.
Terry has particularly found success with 90 degree photos, and in Jan’s podcast, it was brought up that pizza places get a lot of views. I combined the two tips by taking a 90 degree photo of a pizza shop, called Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, which you can see in the 3rd photo. 
2. Mesa Grande Shopping Center
When Morten shared the sun should be behind you for optimal lighting. I joked, “No wonder my face looks less haggard on Zoom calls when the window is behind me.” When this concept was applied to this photo, it made the sign colors clearer and bolder. (Early afternoon or morning around 10 a.m. gives me the best lighting for plazas.)
I also found another tip to avoid negative pushback for plaza photography. While I used to take my photos undercover-style and attempt to be discrete, that would generate more suspicion. Instead, when you carry yourself with confidence and own it, the experiences are more positive.
As I snapped these photos, a security guard approached. I explained about Google Maps and he allowed me to proceed. Another person was staring, and as I walked by, I quickly mentioned “it’s for Google Maps” and the tension was broken as he let out a laugh, saying “I see.” This helps to melt the barriers and increase awareness and trust for Guides and the work we do. 
A “golden hour” for photography for indoor malls is Monday to Wednesday, an hour or two before closing. The mall is pretty much empty so you don’t have to worry about people in your photos. I followed Morten’s idea of using the photo editor to make the colors pop and straightening out photos that were tilted.
As I took multiple photos of different stores, I made sure to take the photo of the store sign first and then take photos of the interior. This way, I could easily know which set of photos belonged to which store.
Happy Holidays my Local Guides friends!
Interesting too about rural public toilets- yes, that is great that you took time to take photos of that and build content on it on Maps; very impactful. 
