Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Baby Adelita has arrived! (Which means Groot the dog is a big brother now!) I got to meet her at her Coaldale newborn session and loved seeing how happy her parents are every time they look at her. Adelita was used to company by now because her grandmother was visiting to help the first time parents out.

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.

Odessa and her family wanted to update their family photos to celebrate their move to the city. They thought it would be fun to have something iconic to Lethbridge in their photos, and what could be more Lethbridge than the high level bridge?

We worked out a date when Odessa’s oldest son was visiting from university. The younger twins had a blast hanging out with their big brother again. The three of them had competitions of jumping over posts in the park, took turns giving each other piggyback rides, and enjoyed climbing on the bridge even when it wasn’t part of the photos.

Their family has such an amazing connection to each other, making the photo session feel more like a playful outing than an actual photoshoot!

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.

To celebrate the shared first birthdays of kitties Audrey and Franklin, their human mom treated them to a Lethbridge cat session. Each cat got a special birthday outfit. Franklin looked dashing in his sparkly bowtie, while Audrey turned heads with her purple tutu.

The kitties were very excited to have me visit their birthday party, though Audrey quickly decided the camera was super scary (I was totally fine, it just wasn’t allowed to cover my face!). We had to use some trickery to get photos of her, while Franklin was much simpler to please. For him, a well placed toy led him anywhere we wanted!

As his days with his family draw shorter, Carlos was honoured with a special pet session. This beautiful Lethbridge Great Dane has set out to prove his vet wrong and has already made it years past what he was diagnosed! Not taking any chances, his extended family treated his human mom and dad to the gift of pet photos while he’s still full of vitality.