Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

To celebrate the end of high school, Brooklyn’s family treated her to a fun session of downtown Lethbridge grad photos. Her mom and brother came along in the beginning for a few photos, then let Brooklyn do her thing! She had wanted an urban location so I chose the city hall area for how many diverse settings it gives. Brooklyn’s baby blue grad dress looked amazing with the local architecture and pops of blue sky, plus she knew how to work it!

One of the biggest projects I worked on last year was with Lethbridge Family Services for their 2020-2021 Annual Report. The report is presented each year in a magazine style with local stories to illustrate their past year. Over several photoshoots, I got to work with many of their staff members and clients (and even got to snuggle a baby Corgi). Their designer let us know what she needed for layouts, and we got to turn each idea into a reality! LFS does great work in the community and it was awesome to see that reflected in the people we photographed.

Mikka’s mom went all out with a day of surprises for her birthday! Her Sweet 16 photos with me were one of many stops she made with her mom throughout the day. Earlier she had been pampered with a shopping trip and hair and makeup for her photoshoot, and after seeing me, they were off to a surprise location for dinner!

We did the photos around the SAAG to make use of an urban setting with a little bit of “greenery” (what you can call that in January, anyway!). The weather was fantastic for Mikka to show off her teal dress, and she totally rocked her photoshoot!

Madison’s family chose a great day to have their session to take advantage of getting amazing colourful Lethbridge fall photos. The colours last fall were incredible!

It had been two years since I last saw them and Madison had gotten a lot taller since then, but still had her same adorable smile and charisma in front of the camera. She was a little shy to start, but quickly had a great time jumping around and getting piggy back rides from her parents.

Last fall, Jamani Duo began working on the creatives for their new album. They loaded up their van with the instruments that were used on the tracks and we adventured throughout the city with all their instruments in tow. Normally when I do Lethbridge promotional band photos there may be a guitar involved, not a whole set up that takes 20 minutes to put together, so this was a ton of fun!

When they listed off the numerous instruments they had recorded with, the top down photo with their instruments surrounding them was the first image that came to my mind, and I was so excited to see it was the photo that made the album cover!

I’ve worked with Melissa many times for her family photos, but this time I had the opportunity to focus on just her! In addition to her work in the world of medicine, Melissa is also a local Lethbridge musician and needed some singer-songwriter promotional photos for her solo music she is working on.

Melissa usually plays guitar with a local rock band of other health care professionals, but her solo work shows a more vulnerable side. Normally my focus is on colour work, but a ton of black and white felt like such a good fit in this case.

Being a true rockstar, Melissa bared her arm and shoulder tattoos in the freezing cold for the sake of these photos!