Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

When Janet and Alvin celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, their children gifted them a photo session for Indian Battle Park family portraits. It was the perfect time to update their photos while each of their children’s families were back in Lethbridge.

Their family is adorable and cares for each other so much. With each hugging embrace for photos came huge smiles from everyone involved. Alvin and Janet themselves snuggle and grin like newlyweds even after 40 years!

Dan and Sheila were gifted a portrait session for Christmas and waited until we had gorgeous weather and their granddaughters were visiting. Wanting something a little off the beaten path for the city, we decided on Lethbridge Research Centre family photos. The centre’s Fairfield Gardens are one of my favourite and most under-utilized locations here so I was thrilled when Dan was the one to suggest it!

The family made their session so much fun by constantly goofing around together, teasing each other behind the camera, and not being afraid to roll around with Aspen the dog on the ground. Aspen was quite the show stealer with his energetic antics and the team work from the family that it took to have him hold still for only a few photos at a time.

Unfortunately Aspen unexpectedly fell ill not long after this photo session so this post is in his memory. I’m so thankful we were able to get these amazing moments of him with his family.

It’s a big deal when Bob and Linda come to visit! These sweet grandparents live in northern Canada, but their grandson and his family and sister are in Lethbridge while he completes his degree. Bob and Linda planned a special trip to see their great grandchildren and have a family photo session while they were in the city.

We picked the University of Lethbridge as our backdrop both because of the wind and because the location is meaningful while Ken goes to school there. (Usually my clients get a little worried about getting lost on campus, but Ken easily knew his way around!) We explored the new Science Commons building and the kids loved all the elevator rides!

Bob’s great grandson is named after him, so he brought along special matching embroidered hats for the two of them to wear. I’m only disappointed the elder Bob didn’t have bright green hair like his great grandson ;)

When Gary and Sylvia’s family booked their session, I was warned about two cranky boys: 1 year old Takeshi who was currently teething… and grandpa TJ who does not like having his photo taken! Ribfest over at Henderson Lake made us decide to switch over to Nicholas Sheran portraits. This was a great decision as we found a spot completely sheltered from the crazy wind that day!

The little boys loved climbing in the trees (so did their dad) and having sword fights with sticks. Grandpa TJ peacefully sat back and laughed at everyone having to chase the kids into photos.

This was a really special family session that allowed them to get four generations together in one photo.

p.s. Final assessment? None of the boys were very cranky :)

It’s been nearly 7 years since Larry and Debbie rounded up the kids for family photos, so a lot has changed since then! The biggest change is that “little” Luca went from being a giggly toddler to a talkative big kid. Plus, a whole bunch of doggies have been added to the collection! I went into the session clearly knowing which dogs belonged to which family because I was given each dog’s full name (dog name + family name) on the family’s intake form. (It’s important you know that one of the dogs is named Schlubby, and he was such a Schlubby they couldn’t possibly have given him another name.)

We carefully timed these multi-generation photos to take place in between rain storms and knee surgery. Luckily crutches were easy to toss to the side when it was time to pose! Aperture Park provided a gorgeous backdrop and gave the dogs lots of trees to sniff, and Luca lots of things to climb on.

It was great to catch up with this family, especially because they have so much fun when they are together and the joy is contagious!

What a historic celebration for this family! Lillian was celebrating her 100th birthday and had all of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and a large number of nieces and nephews came to visit for a Galt Historic Railway Park family reunion. Lillian’s son operates the Galt Historic Railway Park in Stirling, making it the perfect venue for their event. This was my first time visiting the museum and I was so impressed by this hidden historic gem!

Once Lillian arrived at her party, dressed to the nines in her pink crown, we got everyone together in front of the train station for extended family photos with the birthday girl. She got to retire from the photos before the kids, thus getting first dibs on her cake!

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