The mall thing reminds me of once saying "hello" to a child who was reaching for a box of goodies on a grocery store shelf...the mom immediately grabbed the child an chastised her for talking to strangers!  I only said a polite hello..well, that was the scene. I imagine a camera seen by that particuilar and perhaps over cautious mother would be taken as a pervert on the other end of the camera.  So, in public, I always ask first.  I did not used to do this but now I do....well, most of the time but not if I can get away wiith it.

A day's photo shoot? I will think about what I want to get but generally wind up driving around looking for something to catch my eye.   Around some locations, I will decide this is "macro day" and go with that lens and find stuff.  Other days are combined and it might change to "telephoto day" and I go to places I know will have flying birds, even if not uncommon ones. Then I shoot to improve my skill at "in flight" shots, a difficult task overall.

Mostly, it is go out, drive a bit, hope for ideas and some scene to fire my imagination.  That might be a nature scene or a buillding with neat structure in even little forms to make an image. It is all pretty much to the day at hand, unless a very special day with  a specific aqenda which does not happen too often.   I hope this helps.

Sometimes the most respected photos are not done any better than many of us are able to do. It is just that the photographer is able to get to the "place" that holds the scene of interest. For instance, I cannot photograph a glacier from here or a neat loch.  I can get good green mountains and some small things within that environment.          TomDart.   good thread.