Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

Ammena Dance Company’s “An Explosion of World Dance and Music” 2012 will be taking place on Saturday March 3rd at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge. This year’s show is just as diverse as the last, featuring bellydance, samba, Bollywood, burlesque, and an awesome tango piece. For once I am doing a proper bellydance as my solo this year… but that’s just too boring, so I picked some Lady Gaga to do it to!

Tickets will be on sale soon and they always sell out before the night of the show, so make sure you pick yours up early!

Since the tango piece is our big number this year, we went with that as the theme for the poster. Lise-Anne was a fabulous model as always, and like last year, couldn’t blink the whole time because of the extravagant eyelashes Jen gave her :)

Model, Wardrobe: Ammena Talhami
Makeup Artist and Hair: Jennifer Murray
Concept: Tanya Plonka

Please note: As usual, due to my heavy involvement in this show, I will be taking very limited sessions between now and mid-March. If you would like to book a session in that time, please contact me at info@tanyaplonka.com for availability, or I can schedule you in for April and beyond. I am still able to meet up for any wedding consults during this time, so don’t hesitate to ask if you would like to find out more about wedding collections for 2012!

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Jan and I can never seem to get our schedules to match anymore, so it’s always a treat on the rare occasions we can work together! I was able to second shoot for her at Seth and Ashley’s wedding, out on his family’s farm near Vauxhall. I started out when the guys were getting ready (Jan was out with the girls), then Jan posed everyone while I crept around and took paparazzi photos :) (more…)

It’s been a few years since Matthew Good played in Lethbridge, so it was a treat to finally have him back. I’m a little biased in my opinion of the show because he’s been my favorite musician for half my life, but I’m sure there were a few other people who agreed with me seeing as how it was sold out ;)

I was able to catch one of his shows at Jack Singer Hall in Calgary the week before and was excited to be able to photograph his bar gig here in Lethbridge after seeing that. Luckily the gorgeous light show they had set up translated pretty well to the smaller stage. The performance was amazing (one of his best I’ve seen), and we all cheered when he chastised a few guys who started a fight. Definitely one of my top shows of the year! (more…)

Vegas shows usually have a no photography rule, but Absinthe encouraged it! This relatively new show in a circus-esque area outside of Caesar’s Palace is described as Cirque du Soleil’s younger punk brother, which was the perfect description of it. It takes the impressive acrobatic nature of Cirque and throws in raunchy humor (including making fun of Cirque) with a super intimate environment. The stage is only about 10 feet wide with seating for 200 in the theatre, so no matter where you are, you are up close and personal. If these performers were to mess up, you’d get a roller skate in the face. We didn’t splurge for the VIP tickets and still managed to get the second row, which was almost but not quite as terrifying as the first row.

The performers were all amazing and I think I watched half the show with my jaw hanging open. (The other half was spent wiping away tears of laughter.) If you’re easily offended, the humor in the show may not be appropriate for you, and if you don’t want to be picked on, sit a little further back :) (more…)

It’s been a busy season so I’m two months behind on posting this, but better late than never, right?

I had a great time at Photoshop World again and learned many things which I have since forgotten (good thing I took notes!).

On my first day, I went on the Photo Safari with Joe McNally and Moose Peterson. I am lucky I signed up for it when I did because it was sold out several days later! This event is always popular because you get to spend an entire day shooting with these two very influential, talented photographers. They show you how they light scenes, interact with subjects, and see things the way they do. This year the field trip was to Bonnie Springs Ranch, which is a tourist attraction just half an hour outside of Las Vegas. The employees/actors who work at the ranch were our models, and they were great to work with. (more…)

Amazing! Amazing! It’s hard to write much else about this show. After a much too long hiatus, Big Sugar got back together and this is very dear to my heart since they were the second 18+ show I ever went to (my friend and I had to skip some classes in high school the next morning to do this). Gordie Johnson is also now a member of Wide Mouth Mason so they came along as well, and that’s exciting since they are one of my top bands. Shaun is one of my favorite singers – ever – and I never cease to be amazed at his guitar playing gush gush gush, etc. though that’s some tough competition when you are sharing the stage with Gordie.

This show went on for several epic hours and I’m so glad I got to be up front, showered by Gordie’s spit as he sang! :) (more…)