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Would you like a photo of yourself and a friend climbing Grizzly Peak? How about Minnie Mouse helping you with sunscreen on the beach in front of Paradise Pier? Maybe a group shot with Grizzly Peak looming behind you? Or perhaps riding Grizzly River Run with Donald Duck, while your friend and the rest of the Fab Five watch from the shore? |
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Pacific Ocean Photos, behind the big sign for Paradise Pier |
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Then walk right over to Pacific Ocean Photos! This novelty photo studio is located right between Strips, Dips ’n’ Chips and Malibu-Ritos, below the giant Mickey head loop of the roller coaster. |
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A mural of Paradise Pier... on Paradise Pier. |
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Look for the mural of Paradise Pier between the two entrances to Pacific Ocean Photos. Paradise Pier is supposed to look like a charming early twentieth century amusement pier on the California coast—although the stucco building in front of you doesn’t quite exude such charm. |
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Old fashioned camera on the outside only |
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Welcome to Pacific Ocean Photos—the old-fashioned, high-tech novelty photo studio here on Paradise Pier. |
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Sample photos on display |
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Now you need to pick a setting. Choose from a variety of California Adventure locations. |
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This could be you! |
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One 8"x10" is $16.95; a second 8"x10" is $13.00. If you want something smaller (and a bit cheaper), one 5"x7" $12.95; a second 5"x7" is $8.00. You can also have your photo put on postcards. |
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Not quite the look of an old fashioned photo studio |
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If you were expecting the inside of the studio to look like something from the days of George Eastman, you might be surprised by the simple, functional interior. |
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The magic green screen |
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Your backdrop is a chromakey green screen. Depending on which setting you chose, the photographer will position you properly against this backdrop before capturing your image. Using digital processing software, any part of the image that was green is transparent, allowing your image to be appear in the setting that you chose. Cool, eh? I hope you’re not wearing a bright green shirt. If you are, then your torso will also be replaced by the background and your head will be floating somewhere above your pants. Don’t worry. Pacific Ocean Photos has costumes that you can put over your clothes. Actually, you may want to wear costumes in any case, just to make the photo more fun. The reason that green is the preferred color for the chromakey process is that it’s so different from natural skin tones. No matter how queasy you feel after going on the roller coaster loop above the studio, your skin shouldn’t be so green that it causes a problem. But if somebody in your group is wearing bright green eye shadow, that might be another story. |
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It’s also a photo store... with a sideshow poster. |
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Perhaps you’d prefer to take you own pictures rather that spending $16.95 for a single 8"x10" photo. Pacific Ocean Photos also sells Kodak film, Kodak disposable cameras, photo frames, photo albums, and camera batteries. If you use your own camera, you don’t have to go without a clever California Adventure background. It’s a short walk from here to the “Picture Yourself in Paradise!” location. |
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The money-saving alternative |
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You have choice of two settings for your own California Adventure photo. The one on the right is particularly fun. Have one or two people in your party get behind the nose of the California Screamin’ train. Frame your shot carefully. When you get your print, turn it upside down (or rotate it 180 degrees in iPhoto). Voilà! The subjects of your photo are at the top of the loop. |
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Pacific Ocean Photos opened at Disney’s California Adventure in February 2001. The studio and film store had two unassuming entrances in the simple stucco building that also housed two fast food restaurants. More than five years later, Pacific Ocean Photos closed to make way for the first major enhancement to Paradise Pier—Toy Story Midway Mania. In September 2006, workers erected a construction wall. By Thanksgiving 2006, the building was gone. |
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No mural yet in February 2001 |
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The name of the studio, Pacific Ocean Photos, was undoubtedly a play on Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Built by a partnership of broadcaster CBS and racetrack operator Santa Anita Park, the ambitious amusement pier—called P.O.P. for short—was supposed to compete with Disneyland. It only lasted from 1958 through 1967. |
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Toy Story Midway Mania |
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Click here to discuss this page on the Yesterland Discussion Forum at MiceChat!
© 1995-2010 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated September 17, 2010.
Photo of Pacific Ocean Photos sign: 2002 by Allen Huffman. |
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