Sited in the heart of Orange Coast College, the new planetarium building features a domed theater with a 50 ft. projection screen, a Foucault pendulum reminiscent of the one at Griffith observatory, and a projection “science on a sphere” globe by NOAA.
Not all photo shoots go according to plan. Due to a broken underground pipe that undermined the sidewalk, shooting the exterior was put off for over 6 months while I waited for repairs to be made. Some factors such as the weather are beyond anybody’s control. Fortunately, OCC is practically in my backyard, so dropping by to check on progress was fairly easy and left plenty of time to scout the location.
For the exterior photo, I had wanted to do a shot that showcased the long pointy overhang and also showed how the the red cube around the entrance doors penetrated the glass wall. Once the viewpoint was established, the tripod was loaded down with sandbags and captures were started from before sunset continuing to well past blue hour. Additional lighting was also added to some of the surrounding buildings. While inspecting the scene, I noticed someone had managed to kick the pea gravel surrounding the building base, scattering it all over the sidewalk. Lacking a broom on this job and with no time to go look for one, I got down on all fours and managed to sweep most of it back with my hands. Call it old school, but I prefer pre-touching as opposed to retouching. Maybe it was the cold winter evening, but during the hours I was working there, it seemed eerily quiet for a college campus with barely any pedestrian traffic. Not that I’m complaining, the shooting conditions for me were about as good as one could hope for.
I’d like to give a shout out to HPI architecture for designing such a cool building, and to Scott Mitchell, the planetarium director for helping out with photo shoot.
