Providing a record of its more than 2.5 million annual visitors, a Los Angeles Convention Center event photographer is an important consideration for athletic, personal and corporate functions.
One of the largest venues in the country, the L.A. Convention Center hosts about 300 events a year for a broad range of industries and purposes. It’s a venue that fuels much of the energy in Downtown L.A. alongside its neighbors, the L.A. Public Library, Grand Central Market and the L.A. Athletic Club.
For almost 50 years, Los Angeles Convention Center photographers have captured the venue’s storied history.
Designed by architect Charles Luckman, the L.A. Convention Center opened in 1971, just a rectangular-shaped building at the time. Some of its early use was as a site for administering professional exams and naturalization ceremonies. Like the city of Los Angeles, it grew more glamorous with such events as Grammy Week celebrations, the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute and the Emmy Awards Governor’s Ball.
The Los Angeles Convention Center has a reputation for being cutting-edge, beginning with its adherence to being “green.” It was the first U.S. convention center to maintain a LEED design (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and continues to take steps toward sustainability. Following its commitment to reducing the impact on the environment, it is now a straw-free facility and participates in energy conservation.
The LACC was one of 13 that recently received an honor called the GEELA, or Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. It was granted at the California Environmental Protection Agency in Sacramento and is the highest statewide award of its kind.
The L.A. Convention Center continues to make history; for instance, it is the first convention center in the United States to permanently install a 5G network. The updated wireless internet and voice services is an advantage for visitors because it improves upon 4G LTE, being more responsive and moving data faster than before. As the next level of technology, 5G dramatically increases wireless speeds and capacity, including AI and video calling.
The best Los Angeles Convention Center Event Photographer can shoot great quality in a variety of spaces.
It’s more than just meeting rooms – the L.A. Convention Center is a multi-functional space, where the combination of rooms you use depends on your event. It also has a bearing on the skill set your event photographer needs to have.
While the Cheer & Dance Championship uses South Hall G and one of the meeting rooms, the International Gem & Jewelry Show uses Petree Hall, which is 21,557 square feet of exhibit space. The hall can also be used as banquet service for 1,100 people or it can hold 100 booths.
The best Los Angeles event photographer has completed jobs with a similar scope to the function you’re planning. If it’s a speaker series and you’re renting lecture halls, a corporate photographer can probably deliver the photo products you need.
If your company is hosting a national conference in a venue the size of the Convention Center, however, you may want an expert in conventions and trade shows photography. It’s ideal if you can find a professional with experience in settings with large, audience-style seating such as universities.
For event planning companies like The Party Goddess, the photographer should also have the ability to parlay the photo product into positive social media promotion. Both the event production company and the corporate partners need professional images to promote their brands.
The Los Angeles Convention Center has more than 720,000 square feet of exhibition space, 147,000 square feet of meeting space, 1,960,000 square feet of parking, and a 299-seat theater.
The facility has been remodeled and expanded over the years. The lobby floors in the north half of the building feature two large 140,000-square-foot multicolor maps of inlaid terrazzo that symbolize the wide range of individuals who use the facility. The main lobby floor has a map of the world centered on the Pacific Rim, and the floor of the upstairs lobby has a map of the constellations around the North Celestial Pole.
There is a variety of rental space:
- South Hall is an exhibit hall with 347,000 square feet.
- Kentia Hall (beneath South Exhibit Hall) can be converted into a 415-car parking garage.
- West Hall is an Exhibit Hall with 210,000 square feet.
- Neil Petree Hall is 21,557 square feet of exhibit space.
- Concourse is a two-story meeting room bridging over Pico Boulevard.
- There are three food courts.
- There is on-site parking for 5,600 vehicles including electrical charge stations.
A Los Angeles Convention Center event photographer who does more than standard corporate photography will get more bookings.
Good conventions and events photography is a necessity for planners in virtually every industry, but in some cases, a Los Angeles Convention Center photographer needs an added set of skills.
For instance, the annual Bride World Expo requires the services of an event photographer with an artistic sensibility as well as practical knowledge. An eye for color is a prerequisite – the first thing a bride decides is the colors for her wedding because that decision affects fashion, frosting, flowers – and everything else. And that means wedding-related businesses depend on the draw of colors to capture their customers.
Images are everything in that industry and there’s a pretty drastic range of subjects to shoot. Mastering the look of practically every size, shape and purpose is a challenge. The closeup of rose petals in bridal bouquets has to match the quality of a shot of a 9-foot cathedral-length veil.
It may sound like enough to hire a seasoned Los Angeles wedding photographer, considering the content, but activities at these types of events have more moving parts than you might think. The infotainment often includes:
- Grooms contests
- Fashion shows
- Musical entertainers
- Seminars
- Lighting experts
- Artisan demonstrations
So, your basic convention exhibits photography may not do it justice.
If it’s a function planned by PBC Events it’s liable to include celebrities and the latest pop-culture trends. With 30 years providing parties and events photography to capture favorite moments from end-of-year company gatherings, PBC Events has a reputation for top-quality staffing. Their corporate clients include Ernst and Young, Xerox, SoCal Edison and the Los Angeles Bar Association, plus many from artistic corners of the world, such as Walt Disney and IMAX.
PBC Events planners know the difference between an effective corporate events photographer and someone who can do point-and-shoot wrap party photos.
More than just a corporate venue, some L.A. Convention Center events require galas, awards & fundraisers photography.
While many of the events held at the Convention Center, such as Tony Robbins’ “Unleash the Power Within” seminars call for national conference photography, others have more theatrical qualities.
The Primetime Emmy Awards Governor’s Ball has been held there for years, and when you Google the event you see some of the best red carpet and PR photography to prove it. Taking advantage of the long walkway entrance and the amazing L.A. weather, designers have turned the space a gorgeous gold on more than one occasion.
L.A. Live Event Deck, just steps from the Convention Center doors, hosted the Primetime Emmy Governor’s Ball last year. The L.A. Live campus includes the Event Deck, The Terrace, The Conga Room and more, welcoming 20 million guests per year for events.
From logo walls to awards ceremonies, Los Angeles Convention Center event photographers are sometimes hired to cover functions that have unfolding qualities or are hybrids.
First Robotics Competition, called a “Varsity Sport for the Mind,” combines the rigors of science with the excitement of sports. Like the work of engineers, teams of teens raise funds, design a brand and build/program a robot. The images you end up with are part conferences and meetings photography with features of sporting events and award ceremonies.
Fans can catch the high points from sporting event photography posted after the game.
The LA Convention Center is the site of major sports competition – even lined up as far ahead as the 2028 Olympics. Six sports will be held at the site, including women’s basketball preliminaries, Taekwondo, table tennis, BMX freestyle, fencing, and boxing. A stretch of Figueroa Street will be referred to as the Live Site Olympic Zone.
With the use of a sporting event photographer, athletics held at LACC don’t stay under the radar. Fans who miss such events as the Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) Junior National Qualifier can still appreciate seeing the LACC converted into 80 competition volleyball courts and experience the thrill of 6,000 matches.
Likewise, images from the high-profile Longines L.A. Masters Grand Slam equestrian competition could be shared on social media. That way, people around the world could see how it brought the world’s best riders and show horses to Los Angeles.
The L.A. Convention Center is just down the street from the Staples Center, another huge arena, hosting the Grammys, the Lakers, the Kings, and a lot of major corporate events. Located near the L.A. Athletic Club, there’s no shortage of sports fans in downtown Los Angeles.
The NBA all-star weekend brings downtown L.A. to life with three days of sports demos and fan events. The Mountain Dew Kickstart Rising Stars Practice at the Verizon Up Arena at LACC brings the public up close to the NBA’s best first- and second-year players. A Los Angeles Convention Center event photographer covering this and other events in the Arena had better wear his/her Nikes.
As part of the All-Star weekend, products are rolled out at stores on Melrose and members of the fan public are exposed to new venues like the private, hip barbershop Grey Matter. But these promotions are much more far-reaching through effective event photography.
The kind of Los Angeles Convention Center event photographer whose work has a long shelf-life is someone who smells the sweat – from shooting sports, a fashion show or even an enthusiastic speaker. What they produce is the result of know-how and a serious commitment to quality.
