Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

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…)

Erin, Blair, and baby Adora came into Lethbridge for some photos today, and we had a beautiful sunny morning to work with! Even though Adora doesn’t like to smile a ton, we got some great ones bursting out when we went to her aunty’s house for more photos. What a cutie! (more…)

The weather may have forced us inside, but I had a great time taking graduation photos with Zack and Amanda, as well as Zack’s mom and dad. Zack has exceptional taste, as is evident by his white tux, and Amanda’s tastes are quite outstanding as well with the choice of her gorgeous sparkley blue dress. What a good looking couple :) (more…)

Melissa, Joe, and little Maddison brought along their brand new baby Sawyer, all the way from the Crowsnest Pass, for some family pictures today! They are such a sweet, easy going family, especially Maddison who is just exploding with energy! Sawyer cried through most of the shoot, as many many many babies do, so I was happy we could catch him in those brief moments when we pulled his pacifier out :) (more…)

This Halloween, Andrew Suderman was gracious enough to let me second-shoot for him for this really unique wedding! Doug and Kristine combined the chilly autumn weather with some excellent Halloween elements, which was right up my alley :)

I had Andrew assist me earlier this year, so it was cool to switch the roles. He’s a super awesome up and coming photographer in town, so make sure you check out his Flickr page!

Doug and Kris started with a “regular” wedding (well, regular but with Halloween decorations) in the German Canadian Club, and then we went outside for family photos. Unfortunately the wind was a chilly 80km/hr that day, so we weren’t able to stay outside for very long! Andrew set up his lights inside, so I wandered around capturing all the neat little details they had arranged in the hall.

After the lunch reception (they had an early wedding), we drove out to Stirling to go to the renown Haunted House! We were instructed that we could take photos inside, as long as they looked “creepy.” I am so glad Andrew had a flashlight in his gear bag so we could focus our cameras on them! And I have to admit, I was a very bad second shooter and totally hijacked that portion of the shoot! ;)

Their second, evening reception saw all the guests return in Halloween costumes. So much fun! (more…)

Last week GS Lakie middle school and LA Dance company put on a fantastic dance show, Rush Dance Montage, with all of their students at the Yates Memorial Centre. Music students of the school opened the show with each of their rock bands while the crowd filled the auditorium (I wish my school had had a rock program!), and this was a first performance for many of them but they did so great! They were followed by an hour of super impressive dancing, with dancers ranging in age from teeny tiny (3 or 4) to adults. The show had such diversity, covering hip hop, lyrical, Latin, Afro-Caribbean, contemporary, Irish, etc etc. My favorites were the Bollywood piece (naturally) and the Michael Jackson tribute. There are a ton of talented dancers in this city! I really wish the show had been much longer than an hour! Kristi did such a fantastic job putting this together :) (more…)