Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Two weeks ago I attended my very first Photoshop World, which was held in Boston MA. I was joined by co-worker and fellow photographer Michael Warf, and we had a phenomenal time! I learnt a huge amount at the convention, and our after hours shooting filled my portfolio with some wonderful things.

Naturally, on the slideshow above I had to pay homage to one of my all time favorite bands, the band who “saved” me from pop music, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Secretly I wished terribly to run into at least one member of the band while there… but sadly I don’t think they hang around Photoshop conventions!

Click below to go on to the photos!

My only view of Toronto at this point in my life. We flew overnight from Calgary (left at midnight) and arrived in Toronto while it was still dark out. By the time we got to the terminal, it was quite bright outside, so I was able to see that tiny visible portion of the city both ways. I was thankful the time change was overnight so I didn’t notice it as much – not that I was able to sleep much on the plane.

With some Price Line bargaining, we got rooms at the Hilton (across the road from the Convention) for a remarkable $75 a night!

This was the view from my room :)

I’ve never done this before, but always thought it would be a cool idea to get a self-portrait in every hotel room I stay in. Hopefully I can keep up the habit, because it was kind of fun!

Hello, obvious Canadian tourist!

Our only plans for Tuesday were to go to a photo walk, and we left an hour early to explore the area a little better (also because we had no clue where we were going).

Boston is such a beautiful city with so much character. The Back Bay area where we were staying was especially gorgeous. Boston is now my favorite place after LA. (I’m not sure anything will beat LA)

The alleys in Boston are so well kept. I think it’s kind of cute they have their own street signs.

While waiting for a crosswalk sign to change, Michael and I encountered an old man and his oooold giant Mastiff. The dog loved getting petted and didn’t want to leave us, and with a dog that size you need to wait till he’s ready to leave.

I noticed a lot of people in the area had dogs. It’s nice to see so much green space in an urban setting to make that possible.

The vines! They were on all the buildings. It was so beautiful. A lot of it reminded me of Tim Burton movie, so I was totally in my element.

The meeting place for the photo walk. It was interesting to see all the historic buildings co-existing with the new skyscrapers and hotels.

Jeff from PhotoWalkPro organized the walk, and it was great to finally meet him!

The photo walk group.

Nearly every building in the area had unique, beautiful doorways.

I caught Michael taking my photo so I struck a “Sears pose”.

I smell Tom Cruise

The squirrels there are brave when they think you have food! This is how I met Rob, who we ended up spending the week with! He told me he was from Ottawa, but wasn’t with Ian, the other Ottawa-ite we had also met on the walk, so I introduced them, and we were all buddies from then on :)

I tricked the squirrel into thinking the stick I was holding was food.

These bushes reminded me of piles of poop. Where is my head at?

The trees in this park were amazing!

Michael and I got separated from the group and headed back to the hotel down some really gorgeous streets.

On Wednesday we went to our first classes and met up again with the guys from Ottawa (by fluke). That evening was the convention party at The Estate, where we enjoyed a free meal and music by Scott Kelby’s band Big Electric Cat. After the band left the stage, the music continued and we stuck around to dance! I had so much fun… why did they have to kick us out at 11:30pm??

(Pardon the bad point-and-shoot snapshots.)

The Canadians: Ian, Michael, Rob, and myself
Our English friend Ed is walking in the background, in this very unflattering photo of him.

Blurry, but classic :)

On the way out we met this fellow (I forget his name) who is a poet/artist out of DC who works for the government. Oh, and part of an underground hip hop troupe! He offered up some freestyling for us in the alley.

His wife/girlfriend, myself, and a woman from Nova Scotia

On Thursday during our class breaks, Michael and I photographed a few models. Our first we had booked wasn’t able to make it, so we called up Jodi, a designer we had met at the party the night before. I’ll be posting more photos of her soon! She was great to work with and was interested in learning what we were doing.

Right after her shoot was done, we met up with Anya, who has some pretty extensive modeling experience. We went back over to the Hynes Convention Center to photograph her. Ian assisted on both shoots, and we were so grateful to have him along! More photos of Anya to come.

Both shoots were a blast; it was great to collaborate with another photographer and feed off each others energy and ideas. We kept swapping and both ended up with really different shots. I even got Michael to take a couple natural light photos… I’m a bad influence ;)

On Friday we went to our last few classes, then the closing event. Rob and I made it onto the wrap up video (it was our goal at the Estate!) but sadly it doesn’t exist online yet – I’ll be sure to share it when it’s there.

Next I was the model, and we recruited a food photographer from New Orleans, Matthew, to also help us out. The next few shots are all by Michael Warf.

Our first stop was a guerrilla shoot at the Apple Store. I’m amazed we got as many shots as we did before we were kicked out!

It was sooooo cold! I had to fling my coat to the guys when it was time to shoot, and quickly grab it back.

I love how epic this is… now gimme a green card!

Minus Michael, this is our shooting team that night: Colorado Mike (“security”), Matthew (background flash), Me (model), Ian (subject flash)

This guy was skating the whole time we were shooting, and offered to get in a couple of our shots :)

On the way home we transferred at Ottawa, and were lucky to fly out with Ian. The Ottawa airport is the nicest airport I’ve ever been to – huge windows and lots of sunlight!

Ottawa was a gorgeous sunny 12C, and Calgary was 0C with a snowfall warning… and we got stuck in High River on the way home because of it, but luckily got home Sunday all in one piece.

What an inspiring trip!

Tags: Animals, architecture, Event, Landscape, people, photoshop world, vacation