Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Odessa and her family wanted to update their family photos to celebrate their move to the city. They thought it would be fun to have something iconic to Lethbridge in their photos, and what could be more Lethbridge than the high level bridge?

We worked out a date when Odessa’s oldest son was visiting from university. The younger twins had a blast hanging out with their big brother again. The three of them had competitions of jumping over posts in the park, took turns giving each other piggyback rides, and enjoyed climbing on the bridge even when it wasn’t part of the photos.

Their family has such an amazing connection to each other, making the photo session feel more like a playful outing than an actual photoshoot!

Kristen celebrated the upcoming arrival of her second child with an Aperture Park maternity session. The whole family came along for photos. Even though Kristen was supposed to be the centre of attention, big sister to be Addison and their dog Rupert kind of stole the show. These two little ones were so adorable and so excited to be spending a nice autumn evening in the park!

Jacey’s early Christmas gift from her parents was a pet session with her dogs, Stella and Gia. Stella, the tan coloured dog, happens to be Gia’s mother. Despite the age difference, Gia was the one on her best behaviour while Stella had the excitement of a puppy exploring Aperture Part in west Lethbridge.

We started out with more classic posed portraits while we still had the dogs’ attention. Once our safe photos were finished, it was time for action shots! Each dog has her own set of special tricks (Stella’s “gopher” pose and Gia’s dancing were the cutest from each). Jacey’s parents described her as “the dog whisperer” and she was able to get the dogs to do everything we needed for photos!

At the end of the session, both dogs got to let loose with rolling in the leaves and chasing sticks. They did so great considering how crazy the wind was that day. The only signs of it were in their wind-swept ears!

Better late than never! Danyel and Kim had to postpone their annual family photos because of all the crazy weather this year. We finally got lucky with late autumn Pavan Park photos. Everything dried out enough that it looked mostly like fall again for a day!

The kids were great sports putting up with the cold temperatures. By the end of the portrait session, they had mastered the art of removing winter coats, smiling, and then quickly putting them back on.

It was great to catch up with Danyel and Kim again after their wedding a few years ago and meet their cute kids!

It was another year of continuing our fun tradition of a family session with Melissa and Schuyer and their children! This year we switched things up again with Indian Battle Park fall photos, where it looks so beautiful in the autumn mornings. Melissa and Schuyler’s session was one of the few I didn’t need to reschedule due to snow this year. Last year they weren’t so lucky, so I was glad they scored a beautiful day this time!

Just days before the photoshoot, their youngest son Branegan decided he was truly a two year old and started exercising his independence. His siblings helped us out by leading him back when he’d run away, grabbing him in hugs, and distracting him long enough to stay in front of the camera. His most valuable item that day was his red comb that needed to be safely in his hands for all photos. Luckily it matched the clothing colour scheme his parents had picked out!

The kids got so excited when a slight breeze made the trees we were under rain down all their leaves. It was magical! (This was even enough to exchange a red comb for a leaf.) We did a lot of exploration in the river bottom and candid photos to keep their little brother distracted.

I love JJ and Shaun’s annual tradition of an autumn portrait session. As was a common theme this year, it took a few reschedules for us to escape the snow blizzards but we ended up with a beautiful evening and lots of vibrant orange colours remained. This year we went with Helen Schuler fall family photos. Each year they have me choose so I try to pick a different location, and we haven’t run out of new places yet!

Shaun’s career has him working for the railway so we made sure to get a few photos with the high level bridge, and spent the rest of our time exploring the nature reserve in the river bottom. Even though the girls are getting older, their energy hasn’t diminished and their antics (including asking their parents hilarious and inappropriate questions) had me laughing through the whole session.