Where are some indoor public places to take pictures?

I have a specific photographer that takes pictures of my family, and now that it's cold out and we have a little one, we have to take our sesion idoors. Instead of our house, I was thinking someplace else, maybe a grand staircase or something. But where could we go?



p.s. we live in the Chicago suburbsWhere are some indoor public places to take pictures?
"Public places" are often actually private property, and you may need permission from the owner to use them as photography settings. The most notorious examples of this are shopping malls and the lobbies of 'public' buildings. That said, it doesn't hurt to simply ask if you could use a portion of their space for a brief photo shoot. They may impose time constraints on you (ie, in a shopping mall you may have to compete with the early morning senior citizen mall walkers). Obviously, the worst case is that they will say no.



Churches are schools are potential settings. If you have an association with the sponsoring group, that could ease the process of getting access.



I can understand the issue about using your own home, but do you know someone whose home might be a good setting? Is it possible to create an artificial setting in your own home that looks like it's somewhere else? It's possible to do things with backdrops that completely neutralize the setting, but you might also be able to borrow props that you can use in your home to create the impression that it is somewhere else.



Actually, your photographer may already have some ideas because this is an issue that every photographer faces on a daily basis.



There are some very obvious choices in the Chicagoland area - the grand staircase in the Palmer House is a wonderful example. Again, you can always ask for permission, and if you are prepared to do something at odd hours when the lobby is essentially empty, they may surprise you by saying yes.Where are some indoor public places to take pictures?
Art galleries, museums, libraries, malls, exhibition halls......

battlefield 3 forums