Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

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!

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.

The year before, T and his sister surprised their parents with family photos. During the session, they lamented that they didn’t bring any of his Tae Kwon Do gear to celebrate the fact he was now a black belt!

The time finally come to focus on all of his accomplishments when he graduated from college.

We started out with some cap and gown convocation photos in Indian Battle Park, as well as some more casual pictures without the grad formal wear on. Then it was time to show off his Tae Kwon Do skills! We headed downtown to somewhere with enough space to go through his patterns plus some different levels to show off his other various skills. (It should come as no surprise he also dabbles in parkour.)

T is already teaching this martial art in youth classes and hopes to one day be a teacher now that he has focused his schooling on physical education. Judging by the skills he showed off during his photoshoot, he should have no trouble achieving his goals!

It’s not every day I get to take Lethbridge professional wrestling photos, but this summer I found myself capturing the promotional photos for local wrestler Kenn Stevens. (This is such new ground for me that I’m not even sure what category to put this under on my blog!) Lethbridge may not have a big wrestling scene, but Kenn is the now the third person I know who takes part in this amazing form of entertainment! I have a couple friends who retired from the sport some time again so I’m glad to see it alive and doing well in new wrestlers.

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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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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