Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

I was so excited to hear from Kelsie and Scott a few years after their wedding when they were expecting their first baby! We patiently waited through a few snow-postponements for their Aperture Park maternity session. Kelsie had picked out such a vibrant green dress to wear and didn’t want to lose it by bundling up in winter gear!

They brought along their fur baby Groot, who had a blast at the park. Despite their best efforts to run off his energy earlier that day, the new smells were just too exciting! Groot, however, was on his best behaviour and paused from bouncing around any time he was needed for a photo.

Before they planned to do maternity photos, Ashley and Jon went on one final adults only trip to Disneyland to celebrate the chapter of their lives that was just the two of them. They used the park’s “do not ride while pregnant” signs to cleverly announce their pregnancy to their friends.

Ashley and Jon are guaranteed to never forget what this pregnancy was like after their trip! Not long after arriving home, we were all ordered to self-isolate and the couple had already scheduled a move. All of that on top of expecting a baby is a lot!

We now had the added difficulty of how to do photos while keeping our distance from everyone and everything…

Kristen celebrated the upcoming arrival of her second child with an Aperture Park maternity session. The whole family came along for photos. Even though Kristen was supposed to be the centre of attention, big sister to be Addison and their dog Rupert kind of stole the show. These two little ones were so adorable and so excited to be spending a nice autumn evening in the park!

Christina and Layne chose a beautiful sunny day for their river bottom winter maternity photos. I absolutely love golden hour at this time of year with how much the warm tones glow in the sun. We only had a bit of snow to deal with in the background! Christina radiated joy for her baby arriving soon.

She and Layne also brought along their first child, JackJack. JackJack is a very small dog with a blonde mohawk! I have never seen such a unique dog before! He wasn’t so sure about what we were up to but he was a good sport about the whole thing.

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Tricia and Colin always love to work their geeky interests into their photography sessions. For a while, they were stuck on what theme to pick for their maternity photos for their second baby. Dinosaurs? Harry Potter? While teaching their little boy Thorin about where his new brother or sister is, he repeatedly pointed to Tricia’s belly and exclaimed, “Batman!” I am thus convinced they are having a Batman, and so they decided to go with a Batman themed maternity session!

Equipped with capes, masks, and custom made shirts where they each wear the emblem (including the Bat Baby), we kept warm inside at the university for their photos. Thorin loved looking at all the art sculptures there and getting to fly around (we didn’t have the heart to tell him Batman can’t fly on his own).

Since then, their new superhero has joined their family!

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Part 2 of the year in review features the portrait side of things! This year marked a few firsts, including my first bunny session and my first family dressed in Batman costumes. I had so much fun with every group I worked with. Thank you for letting me bring your personalities out in your photo sessions!

This year for portraits I stayed pretty local in Lethbridge, but also took a few special trips to the Crowsnest Pass, Waterton, Claresholm, and Magrath. The yearend marks a very special occasion – the 10th anniversary of when I started my business! So many of the people in these photos have been with me for years and I couldn’t have made it this far without their love and support.

I hope you enjoy looking through our best portraits of 2018 as much as I liked choosing them!

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