Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

I have taken dreadfully long to post these! I wanted to give them proper attention, but constantly could never find enough time. Last spring, Beth shaved her head for a cancer fundraiser and wanted to do a few fun photo shoots while she was bald. We decided we needed to do body painting! Sarah volunteered her painting skills; normally she does face painting, so this was a bit of a stretch for her!

During Beth’s three hour makeup session, I freaked out a little at the pouring rain that wouldn’t stop, but luckily the last few drops fell as we drove to our location. I thought I found somewhere private enough, but for some reason everyone decided to go for nature walks in the rain that day, so we constantly either hid Beth in the vegetation, or paused to answer very curious questions from the people passing by.

As usual, Beth was an awesome model and her rock climbing skills really came in handy in her portrayal of what we decided was the “Beth Monster” (I would have fallen out of the trees if I tried to pose like her). Also, thank you to Sarah for the amazing painting job!

Model: Beth
Makeup Artist: Sarah Christensen

NSFW due to [painted] nipples (more…)

Sarah is a fiction author, and is getting published in 2012 so she needed a head shot for her picture in her book. How exciting! We did a full session at the Lethbridge Coast Hotel because she wanted a little something different than your typical author photo, and talk about an easy job for me! Look at how gorgeous she is, not to mention what a beaming smile she has.

Congrats on your accomplishment, Sarah! (more…)

I had a great time this afternoon with these girls! Tanya (not me) is getting married next summer, but because she’s having a small wedding, she’s not able to incorporate all her best girlfriends into the wedding as a bridal party. Instead she choose to do a “bridesmaid” photo session with all the girls in its place! Tanya met her fiancée Elliot at The Slice when his band was playing, so this was the perfect spot to do some photos celebrating the upcoming wedding and her relationship with all her friends. A lot of these girls are rockers and are in relationships with rockers, so they brought a few vehicles full of instruments along as props.

A super huge thanks to Jesse at Slice for letting us in a bit before opening to make this happen! Go eat their pizza :) (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…)

A few days ago I was able to take photos of my new and newish nieces, Madison and Taylor. Those girls have the Plonka lips even more than I do! I had a great time with the girls and look forward to seeing them grow. Hopefully they will be awesome like their aunty ;) (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…)