Dan Fontaine Photography: December 2007

The Christmas shopping is done and the presents are wrapped, I thought I would share some vacation photos in the next few posts. Here are a few images from out trip to California in November.

We had an amazing time. I do regret not bringing a point and shoot camera though because some days I wasn't dragging the 5D with the big 24-70 around for fourteen hours. I also decided not to post any cheesy tourist shots of us standing in front of a mountain or Disneyland etc... I hope you find these interesting and artistic at the same time.

Some cool shots of the amazing Pioneer town. What a great motel with so much character and great owners.

Check it out here Pioneer Town Motel

Also if you are ever even near there you got to check out the one of the best restaurants/bars/roadhouses I've ever been to.

Check it out here Pappy and Harriets's

A few shots from Joshua Tree National Park. We went for a little hike and there were some pretty serious mountain climbers tackling some crazy rock faces.

Check it out here Joshua Tree Park

Steph looking cute.

Okay so this is definitely the part of our trip that wasn't in the tourist brochures. Not only did we see two guys get into a fight over their dogs at a rest area we were also almost broken into one night by a drunken biker. This topped it all off though. We were heading out of LA on highway 1 past Malibu and we decided to grab a little sun on one of the beautiful deserted beaches. After about half an hour into our tan a helicopter started circling and then then speaker blares "come out with your hands up". We went back to the RV and there was a shootout right on the highway. The cops had shut the place down but we had nowhere to go so I snapped some pics. These guys had M-16's and dogs and were going door to door to crappy little rental cottages and kicking in the doors and searching houses. We just don't see this stuff in Canada. Notice that the cops aren't even wearing vests, at home cops wear vests at Denny's never mind a shoot-out. Crazy place.

We stopped at Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Pretty cool overall but I hate group tours where you can't get away to take any decent pictures. These were a few I snapped from the back of a group. William Randolph Heasrt seemed like quite the character but the furnishings and construction were pretty over the top.

Chick it out here Hearst Castle

Some elephant seals chilling out on the coast. These are mostly females and juveniles on shore at this time of year.

Check it out here Elephant Seals

"Safari West is a wild ride in an authentic safari vehicle. Visitors are surrounded by giraffe, gazelle, scimitar-horned oryx, ostrich and other species of African antelope—all sharing the beauty and diversity of the savannah environment. The wildlife park is designed to give the animals the ability to interact and roam about freely, as well as engage guests in a once in a life time experience — an authentic luxury safari in the wine country."

The thing I loved best about the preserve was that the fences were only there to keep the people out. Almost all the animals could easily jump the fences of the enclosures but didn't because they are group animals and happy in the environment they're in. We even saw a giraffe bust down a fence while leaning over to eat some grass, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. The highlight of the trip was probably seeing a baby kudu be born.

Check it out at Safari West

A cool shot of a parrot checking out his reflection in the lense.

The amazing horns of some watusi cattle.

Ilene has unusually massive horns even for a watusi. The guide explained that she is a hermaphrodite who had an extra does of testosterone in her egg when she was conceived.

Ring-tailed Lemurs.

Darn cheetah would not look at me.

The one great thing about tortoises is that they are way easier to get in front of then cheetahs. This old guy was smiling for me I think.

Kiss from a giraffe. We were stopped in our vehicle and this big giraffe sauntered over and was checking us out. His head was inches from mine and too close for the camera to focus at one point. Pretty cool and overall a great day.

Overall it was an amazing roadtrip and we had a blast. The weather was awesome and we'll be back soon.

Another great wedding from this fall. The wedding party was an absolute blast to hang out with all day long. We had a fun day shooting some group shots in Richmond before the ceremony.

A few detail shots to start off.

I love this image, such a natural capture.

A cool shot of the guys chilling.

Some great dramatic shots of the couple. I love the lines the architecture adds.

A fun group shot.

Some amazing casual portraits of Brandee and her girls. The light was perfect under the big tree.

The flower girls we so cute and really helpful all day.

Navi was quite the basketball player back in the day so when they had a few minutes for a quick game it was on.

Phil the MC did an amazing Vanilla Ice impersonation at the reception.

So when Will Sasso is in the wedding party you know it's going to be a fun day. I didn't really count on the rest of the wedding party being just as funny.