Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

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.

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 :)

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!

Just as I had been wanting to do witch-themed photos, I was serendipitously contacted by a group of friends who were planning a girls’ weekend away in Lethbridge in the coming summer. They wanted to dress up like a coven for a fun photoshoot during their trip. It was incredibly hard to wait the many months until their visit, but soooo worth the wait!

Chelsey, Joanne, and Trish absolutely killed it. They selected sexy black outfits all with unique personality and enlisted the talents of Katt Panic for their makeup.

I had so much fun with these women, and they were up for anything! I got everyone to levitate, they climbed on trees in their dresses and heels, and by the end they braved the cold to make use of some creative lighting after dark. The best part of the session was their energy and the positivity they gave to each other, encouraging each of their friends and telling them how sexy they were.

This was easily my favourite photos session this year and I’m so thankful you ladies found me!

I love how vibrant Shelly’s colourful autumn portrait session turned out! Shelly and I planned her outfits ahead of time and I chose the best locations to compliment each one. Shelly looks amazing in bright yellow, so it was perfect for autumn.

Shelly’s family is overseas and with COVID hitting that year, it meant she didn’t get to see them as much as she would have liked. This session was planned as a gift to her mom so she could still see her daughter from afar, which I thought was so sweet!

Shelly is fairly new to Lethbridge after moving from Edmonton, so we made use of a few iconic Lethbridge features like the coulees. She has such a contagious smile and came ready for her photos after studying poses she wanted to use. (I don’t want to scare others away – normally you don’t have to worry about posing, I will do that for you!) It was great getting to know her for the hour session, and we luckily beat a huge rain storm by minutes!

Katon was in need of some new headshots and professional but casual portraits when he contacted me to do his photoshoot. It’s not super often that I get to do a session that is exclusively men’s portraiture, but I love this change from working with families!

I love taking photos at the University of Lethbridge campus because it offers such a great mix of urban and nature locations right next to each other. The urban look was more of what Katon was going for and primarily chose in the end, but I couldn’t resist how great the foliage looked with the autumn colours.

For individual portraits, I always recommend bringing at least two outfits. Katon chose a great contrasting set, including both a more formal dressed up look, as well as a casual look that showed off his tattoos.