Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

I am veeeeery late on editing and posting these, but thrilled to finally get them up here. Back in September I alluded to working with a Utah photographer who could easily be David Bowie’s lovechild (everywhere he went, anyone who met him would exclaim how much he looked like Bowie, which I imagine gets pretty tiring after a while!). Adam met up with me for a fashion shoot in the lobby/bar at THEhotel in Las Vegas, and we got a solid 35 minutes in before security put a stop to it. Considering I’ve been told to move at least every 10 minutes to prevent that from happening, I think we fared pretty well!

THEhotel is gorgeous and when I first saw it a few years ago I instantly wanted to work with a model in there. Adam was a perfect (and very dapper) match. I was hoping to likewise model for him, but we ran out of time. Hopefully at next year’s Photoshop World! (more…)

Roy received his Masters from the University of Lethbridge this weekend, and I met up with him and his lovely family just after the convocation to capture some photos to celebrate this huge accomplishment! His wife and girls were so sweet, and you could instantly tell how supportive they have been of him finishing his degree. Roy has definitely chosen the right career path for him and I wish him and his family all the best :)

p.s. Though intrigued by my zombie photos, Roy was not brave enough to do a zombie convocation session. Darn! (more…)

I’ve done tons of photos of Sarah with her horses before, but usually with her in a dress! She finally wanted some “normal” photos, so we set out with her tall horse Santana to get a few images of her riding him just before sunset. It was probably one of the last few “warm” evenings of the year and we were especially fortunate to chose the night that had the most gorgeous sunset all week! We did quite a few regular riding photos, but I had the most fun when I spun her around and pointed my camera into the lowering sun. (more…)

I had the honor of having my photography in the latest issue of the Allied Arts Council’s Artsbridge Magazine, which is published biannually. Their main theme in this issue was the relationship between arts and the environment, and I was also asked to photo illustrate a couple of the stories within the magazine. My photo of Marie is across the front and back cover, with two photos of Starsha within. It was so much fun photographing for Artsbridge and I’m so thankful to have been given the chance :)

You can pick up a free copy at the Allied Arts Council office located at 318 7 Street South in downtown Lethbridge. (more…)

This last weekend I was reunited with two of the Rice boys and their families. I did both of their weddings, and now they have brand new little blue eyed boys to add to the family! We did the photos in Prince’s Island Park in downtown Calgary, and were able to easily get around all the Calgary Folk Festival attendees. I put Cassandra behind the camera this time as my assistant to generally jump around, wave her arms, shout crazy songs, and dance like a monkey for the babies. As you will see, Cassandra makes a very amusing monkey, at least according to these boys. I’m not sure I have ever seen such smiley babies. There weren’t even any meltdowns!

WARNING: Lots of blue eyes ahead!! (more…)

I’ve worked with Mike for almost two years now, and for quite a while he’s been raving about Amy but since she lives in Saskatchewan, I never had a chance to meet her until now. I had a great time with them and was pleased to see Amy can keep up with Mike’s energetic nature (and she was even better at jumping than him, so he’s definitely met his match!). It’s pretty cute how sweet on each other they are too :)

Aside from increasing my mosquito bite count to an immeasurable amount, I was so happy with the first location we went to; in all my time here I have done photos all around it, but never that exact spot! (more…)