Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

It’s been a while since they were last here, so Lethbridge was stoked Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz had finally returned to the city for one of their awesome rockabilly/burlesque shows. This was their first time playing at Henotic (which is unfortunately ending operations in two weeks), and it was a fantastic venue for this show. As usual I enjoyed every moment of their performance, and wish they could have played for several more hours!

Disclaimer: Some of these photos come pretty close to being topless (but in true burlesque style, the girls are wearing pasties!), so if side-boob offends you or if you are at work you better not click through the rest ;) (more…)

It is finally time for another zombie pinup! This was the first one that made use of two lovely undead models: Karla, my first ever zombie, and Beth, whom I had met at the zombie walk this last year. We went with a bar wench theme, and Jesse from The Slice graciously donated the space for a couple hours that afternoon for us to cover the place in fake blood. Also a big thank you to Sarah who made their skin look delightfully gross, even though her proper stage makeup was out of town!

Models: Beth & Karla
Makeup: Sarah Christensen
Location: The Slice

Check out the rest… (more…)

One of the highlights of my year for the past few years has been going to the annual WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Convention in Las Vegas, and this year was no exception. The morning after my big dance show I drove out to Montana (cheap flights!) then flew to Vegas, only to go to the convention the next morning at 7am! It was four days of intense classes and a killer tradeshow with few breaks, and I learned so much and came home with a notebook full of ideas. This was definitely the most informative year for me; finally, I was focused! Now onto the photos and stories… (more…)

Last year when I went to Vegas to attend WPPI, I was standing in line waiting for Jerry Ghionis’ platform class and started talking to the girl in front of me. What a small world it was; she was from Calgary! I hadn’t seen Stephanie since meeting her then, but we agreed we’d definitely get together in Vegas again this year (don’t worry, I’ll have a post coming about that soon enough!).

This year found her with a baby in her belly, so we decided some Vegas maternity photos were in order! The Vegas strip has a million fantastic photo locations that always get the gears in my head going, but I just couldn’t make it past the hallway to the convention center at MGM! The colorful walls called to me…

Stephanie was willing to strip down in front of all the other photographers walking by, and it was fun stopping for everyone who was chimping the back of my camera to see what we were up to! It was so much fun and challenging working in a totally different environment for maternity photos; usually I prefer to use a lot of natural light and give the photos more of a soft feel, but if you’ve been in any of the casinos in Vegas, you know they are very dark and very dramatic! My mom acted as my lighting assistant with my single strobe (I wanted to travel light – no pun intended), which made the shoot much easier, seeing as how I didn’t have a light stand with me ;)

Check out what a cutie Steph is… (more…)

It took some planning and a crew of people to get the artistic vision perfect, and I was happy with the results of turning Cassandra into her own version of Blind Mag from the movie Repo. This is a bizarre, wonderful dark rock opera, so if you’re into quirky things like that, be sure to check it out! I was hoping to do some evening light painting with this shoot, but the temperature dropped quite considerably and our fingers went pretty numb, so we stuck primarily with strobes.

Sara (who is new to the photo scene; check out her link below!) was a huge help with moving my lights around and manning the flashlight so I could get the focus right, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. This was also the first shoot I had Bonnie do makeup for, and I hope there will be many more because that girl is talented! And if the zombie makeup is any indication of what those two can do, you shouldn’t be too surprised with this costume.

The talented cast…
Hair: Cayley Moncrieff, Chatters @ Park Place
Makeup: Bonnie Ferguson
Assistant: Sara Giséle
Costume: Cassandra Pollock & Jeremy Nordstrom

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Cassandra contacted me a while ago to do a photoshoot inspired by the character Blind Mag from the movie Repo, and things finally came together to make this happen! We had a great team on this and I have a few more to post, but won’t be able to get them online until I get back from WPPI. Stay tuned!

Hair: Cayley Moncrieff, Chatters @ Park Place
Makeup: Bonnie Ferguson
Assistant: Sara Giséle
Costume: Cassandra Pollock & Jeremy Nordstrom