Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Now that’s a view! When I arrived at their home, I wasn’t at all surprised why Dee and Rich decided to use their Christmas gift from their daughters for Tecumseh Road family photos in their own backyard. Their patio area had a perfect view of the mountain range and the river just past the highway in the Crowsnest Pass. They also had a cute little forest that hugged all the homes in their neighbourhood. We almost did this session in the winter but I’m so glad they waited, because the fresh spring green colour in the trees contrasted so nicely against the mountain vistas.

We included the girls’ partners in lots of the photos, but also focused on the original crew, including recreating a photo Dee had of the girls when they were young. Everyone had a great time, especially their dogs once they got to join in on the excitement!

Why not make your graduation a family affair? Hunter celebrated with everyone for his Henderson Lake family grad photos. Instead of only focusing on photos of himself, his parents and sister also joined in. Since his family was all visiting for his drive in graduation ceremony, his grandfather, uncle, and aunt all decided to come along for photos too! This put a little less pressure on him since he doesn’t like having his photo taken too much ;)

Hunter was able to borrow the blue graduation gown from his high school so we could show off this huge milestone in his photos, but we also did some more casual photos without it. It was awesome to see him at this huge accomplishment after a few years of family photos.

Congratulations, Hunter!

Graduations may still have been smaller in scale for another year in a row, but there’s nothing in the way of still having a fun session to celebrate! Teddy had his Pavan Park spring grad photos with his parents and brother right after all the green came out in the river bottom. Pavan Park was gorgeous that evening. Even the new, loud swarms of bugs left us alone.

This family has such great energy together and made each other laugh through the whole session.

Teddy and his younger brother love mountain biking, so they brought their bikes along to use in the photos. This was the first time either of them had tried biking in formal wear, and it went surprisingly well! The true question is whether that will be the last time they bike in suits. :)

Lauren had her Pavan Park high school grad photos in the daytime before her grad ceremony. She was one of the few lucky high school grads who still got to have a ceremony, thanks to the small size of her school. This meant her whole day got to be a celebration!

Lauren chose a powder blue dress with a fun poofy skirt. She really personalized the look by adding cowboy boots! She left no detail forgotten, even having a manicure to match her dress. Lauren was a natural in front of the camera and I appreciated her willingness to climb through and sit in all the coulee brush I asked of her :)

Abuelo Alfredo was visiting all the way from Spain, and this trip was his first time meeting his grandchildren. What an amazing trip! This Lethbridge twins candid photo session was so adorable with the kids playing with their abuelo. (We did try to get more posed photos, but the twins were NOT having it!)

We went to the Galt Museum for their family photoshoot so the kids and their abuelo could run around free and not worry about the cold and winter coats. They loved looking out the big windows together and playing tag, plus a lot of fun rolling around on the floor :)

I definitely got my exercise chasing them around, as did Alfredo and their mom!

With some careful schedule planning, Gord and Kathy were able to get all three of their kid’s families to celebrate Christmas together, and squeeze in a Lethbridge indoor winter family session at the same time. All of their grandchildren are getting quite big so they were definitely overdue for some photos together!

This set of cousins has such a great time together and spent every moment they could between photos playing with each other and their grandparents (the parents were a little forgotten about). To keep up the fun, the session ended with a flossing dance off (mostly between the adults).

p.s. A huuuuuge thank you to Vicky at Honkers Pub for letting us use The Nest Event Space when it was below -20C and everything else was closed for Christmas.