Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Cassandra has been dying her hair a variety of colours for the past few months and I’ve been so eager to get some photos of it! For Pride Month she got a full on rainbow added to her hair and we went out in search of the most colourful backgrounds we could find in Lethbridge for her rainbow themed pinup portraits. In addition to the usual bright murals that are downtown year round, Lethbridge Pridefest added even more variety for us as many businesses had rainbow themed front window displays!

Once it started getting a little too dark outside, we made our own bright colours indoors with gelled flashes. Cassandra came equipped with her big rainbow umbrella from Drunken Sailor and I brought my giant bag of bellydance veils for us to use as props.

This amazing hair colour and styling were both provided by Catwalk Salon.

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One day when we were driving home from a wedding in Waterton, I finally really noticed the old abandoned gas station on the highway. I have driven past it many times before, but there was something about this trip that made it finally connect in my brain. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas in my post apocalypse series. Seeing the gas station right after the Kenow Wildfires made everything click into place!

It’s a bit of a drive to take a model out there, so I took a chance and asked Cam. He was still sporting his mohawk which would be PERFECT for something like this. Cam hates having his photo taken so I was expecting something like, “Are you crazy?” or a firm no. Imagine my surprise when he agreed!

We patiently waited for the snow in Waterton to melt, and the little that was left behind looks like ashes. Everything worked so well together. The burned trees were a haunting but perfect setting for the atmosphere we wanted. The only props we brought along are the ones Cam is wearing or holding, but the locations provided us with amazing still life, which you will see below (I think the apocalypse must have happened in the 90s).

I had to hold off on sharing this for a while as I used the same forest as part of the Scenic Portrait Project. I’m so happy to finally share!

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I was really excited about my locations for spring blossoms this year and wanted to test them all out before my mini sessions started. (Plus I love any excuse to take photos in the flowers!) Why not spend a morning doing some beautiful spring blossom women’s portraiture? I’ve been wanting to work with local model Sadie for a while and she happened to be available right when I wanted to schedule these. Double win! Sadie was amazing to work with and brought along a fantastic wardrobe to go with the spring colours.

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Leslie is happiest when it snows, so when her friend treated her to a headshot session as a Christmas gift, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! We planned her Lethbridge winter headshot session at the very last minute (the snow was falling that night and would melt within two days) and headed over to Aperture Park on the west side with Leslie’s favourite winter coats in tow. Leslie is a talented author and a joy to be around, so I wanted to make sure her new book portraits matched her personality.

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Ray contacted me when he was in need of a men’s fashion portrait session to build up a talent portfolio for himself. We decided on the University of Lethbridge so that Ray could easily change between his different looks. I’m glad we did because it was COLD outside! Luckily one of his looks was made for the cold weather and we started the session with some winter fashion. Don’t let the autumn colors fool you – it had been snowing a few minutes earlier!

Ray is just getting started with modelling but he was already a natural in front of the camera. I think he’ll have a good career ahead of him!

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Tanya was in need of updated professional headshot photos and her house made a great studio! She collects artwork on her travels and it added such great pops of colour in the background. By the way, doesn’t she have a great name? ;) Even her dog Will got to update his headshots while he waited for her to switch outfits.

After her headshots, we finished the session with Lethbridge winter coulee pet photos. Tanya regularly goes cross country skiing with Will. There wasn’t quite enough snow at the edge of the coulees to actually put her skis on, but we brought them along to pose with.

One sign of a good photographer is being able to photograph black pets and still have details show. I think it is an entirely new challenge to photograph a white dog in the snow! In a few spots the snow was a little deep for Will but he had so much fun bounding through the powder!

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