Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

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 :)

It wasn’t fair that only one grandparent got to have photos with adorable twins Iker and Enara! Just a few months after our first session, they got to see me again for their twins spring family photos with their grandma and grandpa. It was kind of shocking to see how much more grown up the twins got in that short amount of time!

This time around their parents also joined in plus the twins were a little more accepting of the whole posing business I was asking of them. We ended up with all kinds of cute combinations of family groups plus lots of action shots (because being thrown in the air is SO much fun).

Shannon and George celebrated their 50th anniversary with their children and took some time for casual autumn family photos. It was especially a big deal for their granddaughter Ainsley since her family doesn’t live in Lethbridge and seeing her grandparents is a special occasion! Her energy level kept everyone going through photos, and at the end the adults were glad to sit down when she hit the playground :)

I’ve known Elizabeth and Brian’s family for many years, but back then it was much smaller! Now that it has grown in size it was time for an update with river bottom multi-generation fall photos. They were cutely colour-coordinated with golden hues contrasting with soft blue, which really popped amongst all the yellow colours in Indian Battle park.

Their family is always so fun to be around and posing for photos was no exception. Even Tali had a blast through the whole session playing with her cousins and grandparents… normally kids her age are done right away!

Why travel anywhere when you have a fun pop of colour at your own home? Lynn and Ward celebrated the arrival of their first grandchild Wesley with backyard fall family photos. Their yard came with a real statement piece with their red barn-style shed, which complemented the fall leaves on the ground.

Wesley was definitely the star of the show with everyone taking turns holding him for photos. I loved his little red vest – major Marty McFly vibes!

Judy and Charlie planned out this beautiful photo session with the help of their daughters. It was so great that the kids could have Lethbridge fall photos with their grandparents before any of them started graduating high school. The cousins had such a perfect close age range that they could be friends and drive each other crazy at the same time (though the crazy part was usually in the sibling pairs).

I was continually surprised how much colour I kept finding in the river bottom into the end of October that year! Judy had requested a log she liked in the river bottom, but since we couldn’t pinpoint where it was, I chose the most log-rich area in Indian Battle Park.