Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Heather is usually the one behind the camera when it comes to photos of her kids. As a gift, her husband Layne surprised her with Waterton summer family photos so she could be more involved. They decided on one of their favourite local places, Emerald Bay in Waterton. This has quickly become one of my favourite locations in the past few years as well so I was super excited that they were willing to hike the full length of the beach.

We did the photoshoot just as the sun was tucking behind the mountains for the day and it was such a gorgeous, clear evening where we didn’t have to battle any wind. Their kids had so much fun teasing each other and playing along the shore, and we got such amazing vistas from where they posed on the rocks.

For Sital’s second photoshoot with me, she brought her daughter Chalisa along for the fun! For this one we did Whoop Up Days midway family photos with the two of them sporting a rockabilly look and then going more colorful and bold. They came up with such cute matching outfits.

There are so many fun textures and lights at the fair that we had no shortage of backgrounds. We started while there was still daylight and made sure to go past sunset to get all the bright lights. With no shortage of cotton candy and rides, it was a blast!

Edwin definitely gave me and his parents our exercise at this photoshoot! I hadn’t seen his parents since their wedding a few years ago, so while they were visiting family they scheduled some time for this very energetic family photography session in the river bottom.

In typical toddler fashion, Edwin thought it was way more fun to do anything but sit in photos. That meant our session involved lots of running, swinging, and hanging upside down! He had a blast with everything we threw his way and laughed through the whole photoshoot :)

Mary, Kim, and their family contribute so much to our city so I was truly honoured when they asked me to photograph them. You may know them as the “rainbow house” family but they do so much more than that to make Lethbridge an inclusive and healthy city. I met with them and their children (including bonus child to be) for their summer evening family photos in Indian Battle Park.

This was such a special photography session to be a part of! Brian and Brian (yes, they have matching names!) wanted to grow their family and were matched with a surrogate here in Lethbridge, bringing them on quite an adventure from the southern US. When Oliver arrived a little earlier than planned, they had to drop everything and rearrange their flights to Canada. Oliver’s surrogate newborn photos included his birth mom, who I loved arranging in a few photos to show the most amazing gift she could have given.

Oliver’s first few weeks in Canada before travelling to his new home were very busy between photos and getting everything in order for the trip, so his dads will be happy to rest at home – even with late night feedings!

Last year Emily and Kelly helped me advertise my gender affirming mini-session fundraiser by bringing their family out for golden hour family photos. They are such great parents and have raised amazing kids who aren’t afraid to be themselves. Going into this knowing their personalities, I am not surprised how easily I got them to agree to things like skipping together :)