Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

More doggie goodness! Precious is another foster dog available through AARCS, and she currently lives in the Crowsnest Pass (I got to hang out with Precious, AND get fed by my mom – double win!). Precious was super mellow and laid back, and although she was a little shy, she was a sucker for hugs and pets. A lot of the foster homes don’t have good cameras, so before my photos the organization had assumed this dog was entirely black since she looked so dark via cell phone photos! People should not miss out on those cute spotted feet she has…

In other good news, these photos really do help the dogs immensely: Elvis had no inquiries before her photo shoot, but within half a month of making her a model, she’s been adopted! Yay!

Winter is just around the corner, so I wanted to share some memories from the summer! It’s not too often I take photos that don’t have people in them, but back in July when I had a dinner break for Erika and Josh’s wedding, I wandered around my mom’s flowers with my macro lens and found some neat things :) (more…)

My favorite weddings are always when friends get married, and it means even more when I’ve known them since childhood. Though I didn’t really know Josh in high school, I’ve known Erika since grade 4, or maybe even grade 2! So, when people at the reception watching the slideshow laughed at her school photo where her hair was in a teased mullet, my laugh wasn’t so much of shock because I remember that photo :) I could probably dig up some other equally embarrassing ones out of my mom’s photos of my birthday parties, but I won’t!

Erika and Josh have been together for many years, and decided they wanted to take the time now to celebrate their relationship and bring all of their friends and family together. Though they’ve moved away from the Crowsnest Pass, they decided to have their wedding there. It was so great to be back with a bunch of school mates in the place where we grew up.

They had their wedding on top of the Pass Powderkeg ski hill, which luckily was finally free of snow (I knew a few people who referred to the Pass as “Snow Hell” this spring because the huge snow banks just wouldn’t melt). It was such a beautiful location overlooking the town and mountains, and they couldn’t have chosen a better spot.

I had so much fun hanging out with them for photos. Everyone was hilarious and constantly laughing. Erika and Josh were so crazy in love that I barely had to do anything to get those smiles out of them.

I’m so happy to have been a part of your day :) (more…)

A few weeks ago I headed to the Crowsnest Pass to welcome Mark and Sarah’s first baby, Nate, into the world with a family photo session getting everyone involved. Unfortunately it was raining that whole weekend so we weren’t able to make use of the gorgeous scenery around Sarah’s parents’ ranch, but they had a wonderful house in which we were able to stay warm. Nate is a super cute, easy going baby and it was fun to see his grandparents totally beaming over him. I hadn’t seen Mark and Sarah in quite a while so it was great to have some time to catch up. They are going to make awesome parents, and Nate is lucky to have such sweet grandparents! (more…)

This weekend I was able to take dog photos of adorable Deuce, the not-so-puppy Great Dane. I had been looking forward to meeting him for a long time, and he is so awesome! He’s not fully out of his puppy stage yet so he’s still full of hyperactive energy and awkwardness, but since he’s a Great Dane he’s already bigger than most dogs. (When I arrived, I had to clarify if that was him in the backyard, or if they had a new foal. It was him.) He was so fun to work with (as long as I was able to avoid the slobber) and I’m happy I could capture his beautiful blue eyes in some photos :) Such a sweet, loving, big dog! (more…)

I finished off my last trip to the Crowsnest Pass with some family photos of Chris, Amber, and their kids Damien, Seth, and Kaylee. They hadn’t done family photos in 5 years, and Chris and Amber hadn’t had any together with just the two of them in 14 years, so they were definitely overdue! The wind warning issued for the region had us worried, but luckily it “blew over” (har har) and we were only faced with a bit of rain, which luckily didn’t really hit until we were finished. Instead we had a gorgeous December afternoon on the Miner’s Path trail in Coleman and we had a great time… well, maybe not the boys, because I made them hug their sister a bit and that didn’t go over very well! :P (more…)