Environmental Portrait of Jay Burress, the New President and CEO of the Anaheim Orange County Visitors and Convention Bureau

Jay Burress in front of the Grand California Plaza

Jay Burress is the newly minted Anaheim Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau President.  It truly is an honor for Caught in the Moment Photography to be selected by the venues that recommend us to their clients for their photography needs.  Within three days in his new position and in the middle of a large convention taking all of the available meeting and exhibit space, we were on the grounds to take Jay’s official portrait to be used by the AOCVCB.
The convention bureau had just inaugurated the beautiful Grand California Plaza, a space that had been activated from a driveway and drop-off area into a exactly what its name implies, a grand plaza with the Anaheim Convention Center as its stunning backdrop.  It was in this space that the marketing and public relations staff wanted to have Jay’s environmental portrait taken.
As it is our custom, we photographed exactly what the client had in mind and then offered a couple of alternate perspectives so that they could then decide how their subject was placed in the context to convey exactly what they wanted the imagery to convey.  Their vision was to photograph the President in a space that not only said visually “convention center” but also obviously “Anaheim.” Fortunately, like some of the other convention centers that form part of our core local convention base, namely the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center and the San Diego Convention Center, the Anaheim Convention Center has impressive letters across its facade with those exact words.  It was there, on the new plaza that they had envisioned the portrait to be taken.
One of the alternatives we offered was literally an upside down, backwards perspective of what they had in mind.  Instead of letting the letters on the convention center literally spell out where the image was taken, we went to a place easily accessible to every convention attendee but just slightly out of the way.  From the top floor balcony of the convention center not only do you get an impressive view of the Grand California Plaza they so much wanted to showcase, but you get postcard imagery of much of what Anaheim has to offer beyond what the convention center.
At the end of the day, they picked both of the images.  The one that they had come up with their story board and our suggested one, one that with the plaza, Angel Stadium, palm trees,  and mountains in the background visually conveyed Anaheim Orange County Visitors and Conventions.