Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

While the tragedy of the local wildfires continued into the autumn, I wanted to turn the ashes into something beautiful and planned out more ideas in my post-apocalypse inspired series. David was kind enough to be on call for nearly two months while we waited for the unexpected early snow to dry up, and we found a perfect single day window of opportunity. We made use of the aftermath of one of the Lethbridge grass fires (this one had been started by an out of control camp fire during the summer).

David put together an amazing outfit and totally fit the part. He even came prepared with weapon and tool props! It’s not often you have a conversation like this…
Subject: I brought an axe.
Photographer: Oh good, I can save the hammer and meat tenderizer for another model.

I’m loving this series and I hope to keep it going! (You can check out the first post-apocalypse photoshoot with Jenn here!)

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With heavy smoke in the air late this summer, unusually high temperatures, and crunchy vegetation from the lack of moisture, Southern Alberta was looking like the setting of a post-apocalyptic storyline. Since that is one of my favorite sub-genres of fiction, I jumped at the chance to create something out of it! Jenn loved the concept and immediately organized this amazing outfit for an epic female warrior out in the wastelands to become Morrígna. Once her outfit was finalized, she pooled together her resources (aka her amazing friends) and came up with a whole arsenal of weapons fit for a brutal post-apocalyptic lifestyle. I can hardly believe the crossbow is a children’s toy! (It’s from Europe… they do toys a little differently there!)

Jenn is a fierce, confident woman and was so perfect in this role. She managed to hide how sweet she actually is in real life and came across as someone you don’t want to mess with!

p.s. Jenn did her own makeup too! Here’s some background on why she chose her warrior name.

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At the end of her session with her brother, Lilly got to do some special Snow White portraits all by herself! Her mom found her a beautiful Snow White dress to hang up in her bedroom with the same theme and her photos will help decorate the room, which is such a cute idea. Lilly was a perfect model for the character with her adorable smile and perfect way of sitting. Lethbridge’s Nicholas Sheran Lake provided a beautiful background for our “forest.” No poison apples were eaten during our session ;)

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I was so happy to finally do this conceptual photoshoot after having the idea building up for it since last autumn! No one else could have been my goddess of the woods – or maybe she’s a fairy :) – but Thea and she totally rocked the role.

As usual, Katt perfectly captured the concept I had for makeup and did an amazing job!

Makeup & hair: Katt Panic Makeup Artistry
Model: Thea
Concept & wardrobe: Tanya
Assistant: Cameron

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As soon as I found out fantasy was a theme, my mind was full of superhero images rather than the traditional medieval concepts that are associated with the term. Originally I thought of putting Kayla in another theme but I’m glad I switched her around because she was so perfect as the heroine in this series. The timing was so tricky because we needed a bright blue twilight amidst a week of rain, but everything came together perfectly, including violent Lethbridge wind to assist with our cape. Kayla was amazing at holding still and resolute in the gusts that nearly knocked us all over on the overpass!

I got to recycle a few pieces of old dance costumes for this shoot; it pays to be a clothing hoarder, right? ;)

Model: Kayla Avison
Theme: Fantasy

This photo is part of the Lens Factor Photo Project in which 5 photographers were given teams of 5 models and given 5 themes to work with. The results were kept secret until all final images were revealed at once. I took a number of photos for each theme and my out-takes appear below!

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I had so much fun doing Elizabeth’s costume photos last year so I was really excited when she contacted me again this year to do another fantasy concept shoot. This time the theme was around light based magic, inspired by a book series she is reading, and night portraits involving light painting were the perfect way to pull it off.

We found a flat spot near Lethbridge’s Pavan Park to get lots of wide open sky just after sunset and started with her blue and white fan veils she has been learning. The nice thing about fan veils is you don’t need to wait for the wind to make them look really cool :) We did a few ghosting photos with those, then it was finally dark enough to pull out the light painting tools!

Elizabeth was awesome at holding still while I ran around her and we all dealt with a swarm of mosquitoes :)

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