Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Last Saturday Lethbridge was graced by the Kabuki Guns Burlesque (KGB) dancers from Calgary who put on a stellar show at Henotic. I was excited to see this as my only burlesque encounters up to that point had been seeing Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz, but I knew there was a whole other world of burlesque out there I had yet to experience!

Just after the girls arrived in Lethbridge, they took some time for an awesome photoshoot with myself, Michael (for a brief while before family matters called), and the lovely Starsha who assisted with lighting (and she has a fantastic eye for detail, so she doubled as our stylist!). We started with the girls’ solo outfits, and I loved their fun costumes. Every costume totally reflected each girl’s personality… and I was especially thrilled when Princess Leia walked out…

[No nudity follows, but burlesque costumes may not be the most "safe for work" ;)]
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How could I NOT use the most cliched song for this? ;)

I figured it would be a good idea to blog about WPPI 2009 in Las Vegas before I run off to Photoshop World in Boston next week!

This is a longer entry, so there are more after the cut!
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One last blog for the evening!

New Years was really special this year because our good friend Andrew Scott was down for a few weeks from Japan. Since he’s been teaching English there, we barely get to see him anymore, and we (or at least I) really miss his crass sense of humor. I am huuugely looking forward to shooting his wedding with Julie this July, but it seems so far away! (I can’t imagine what it’s like for Julie being apart for so long!)

On New Years Eve, he got the boys from the Turncoats back together for an awesome gig at the Slice that sold out several days prior (that hardly ever happens here). Everyone was up front, singing along, like the past year and an ocean hadn’t kept all us fans away from the band.

Opening were the Smokin’ Pistols

Then the lovely Shaela Miller

And the Turncoats!

Paul singing “Roxanne” (Police)… and Paul never sings. It was fantastic!

(You can view more of these at my other site)

Andrew had a really busy week recording, playing, and spending time with family (and Julie), and sadly I am always very busy too, so only caught one of his solo shows in that time… However, I am grateful for that extra time with him, because not everyone was so lucky! (Poor Dino was out of town on a gig and only really saw Andrew the one day). This solo show was at Mocha Cabana, a small coffee house / cafe I love going to downtown. It was a really quiet show and had a nice vibe. Andrew was there more as “background music” but a few of us came specifically to hear him play, and helped him out with “If I Had A Million Dollars,” which he hadn’t really played before but took by request.

1. I couldn’t be with the Johnpaul Smith Band this weekend in Banff due to photoshoots and my day job, and
2. I have a moment of free time to catch up on the last of my personal photos from 2008 (sorry Kelsey, yours are soon!), so…

Here are photos of the Johnpaul Smith Band back on January 30th at Slice!

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I had a great time taking pictures of Texas Flood, not only because Dino is in the band now… and not only because Paul brought some extra lights to spruce up Slice’s otherwise drab lighting… but mostly because they are such a fun band to watch, and Paul makes the best “guitar faces.” (okay, the lights and Dino help out a lot :P ) Shawna and Karen were a delightful addition on the few songs they sang for too!

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I’m terribly sorry if you also watch Andrew’s blog and the LJ Lethbridge community, in which case this will be your third time seeing this!

Andrew will be back from Japan for a bit, and the guys are getting together for what will be an awesome show! It was really fun to combine the western and Japanese together for this :)

Credit for the Kanji goes to my friend Emiko Shibano, who went through the trouble of writing all the characters out by hand and then mailing them to me! It translates to Long Time No See (Hisashiburi desu ne), if you are wondering.

And also a bit of credit to a certain director… do you know who?