Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Bobbi-Jo and Ryan celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last year and decided that would be a great time to update their family photos! Like most families, they started spacing out regular photos once their babies turned into bigger kids, so it’s been a few years since I last saw them. I can’t believe I’ve been photographing this family since their oldest was a baby. How did the kids all get so big??

Their warm autumn afternoon family session was a bit of a miracle after we had to move their photos around several times trying to avoid the snow that was on its way. This gorgeous sunny session took place mere hours before the blizzard moved in!

It was wonderful to catch up with them again and the boys had so much fun having races and climbing on the bridge in Indian Battle Park.

JJ and Shaun didn’t let COVID get in the way of their annual fall family photos, but instead chose to embrace it with masks for the whole group!

We had to WORK to find these fall colours in the park. After days and days of Aperture Park looking vibrant and saturated with colour, the typical Lethbridge wind came through the night before their photoshoot and blew it all away. Luckily there was still enough colour left if you angled the right way!

We had used the park for their annual family photos a few other years, so Shaun was excited to recreate a few of the photos the girls posed for when they were younger. Now that the girls are older it was easy to recreate any photos we wanted, and a lot less stressful for their parents chasing them around ;)

Magrath has such a beautiful nature park, so I was totally on board when Trish and John asked me to come visit them closer to their home for their session! We had a beautiful evening for their Magrath autumn family photos. The timing worked out perfectly between that and having all their kids home at the same time!

The park is a favourite spot for the family to explore, so the kids came ready to climb the awesome big tree that grows over the water. Everyone was so great about following me through bushes and ditches for the best spots!

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.

The year before last, Danyel and Kim missed their window of opportunity for autumn photos because of the early snow. We ended up doing a belated session that was very chilly. Luckily last year balanced things out! Their Aperture Park fall family session was on such a beautiful, calm morning. Instead of shivering children, their three kids got to run around, twirl, and throw leaves in the air.

The kids had such a fun time exploring the west Lethbridge park that they didn’t even want to go home! It was way more fun to keep climbing things there :)

Nicole and Cody had such a vivid fall family session with how amazing the colours were last autumn! Their photography session in Indian Battle Park allowed us to escape the wind and make use of the golden tones in the river bottom.

I had already photographed Nicole and her daughter on the fun mothers-daughters New York trip we went on, but this time the guys (including dog Coco) got to be included. I’m not sure they were as excited about it, but they did good for following Mom’s wishes for family photos!

Coco and the kids climbed whatever they could and were super excited to be out on our photo adventure. Nicole was happy to learn how easily I caught all the moments between the chaos ;)