Surveillance, Observation, and Photography
Plan before you park
Surveillance questions test process. Before deployment: profile the subject (physical description, vehicle, tag, known addresses, work hours), recon the location for sight lines, parking, and exits, confirm equipment (camera with correct date/time, charged batteries, memory, written log), agree on communications and a cover story, and brief the client on what will and will not be done. A surveillance that produces no video but a clean, timed log is still a good surveillance; video with no log is nearly worthless.
Techniques
Static (fixed) surveillance covers a known address. Mobile surveillance follows the subject using leapfrogging and the ABC rotation so no single vehicle stays behind the subject; foot surveillance follows the same logic. You are "burned" when the subject makes you - break off, do not immediately re-engage, and document the compromise.
The legal ceiling
Private investigators are not police, but there is no license to trespass. You cannot enter private property, peer into the windows of a residence, or record where the occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Florida's video-voyeurism statute and its tracking-device statute both reach private conduct, so placing a GPS unit on a vehicle you do not own, or filming into a home, requires legal review before you act.
Documentation
Record contemporaneous times, addresses, weather, and descriptions; note whether recording was continuous or intermittent; never edit originals.
Rule of thumb: if you would not want the tactic read aloud at a deposition, do not use it.