Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

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!

Jacey’s early Christmas gift from her parents was a pet session with her dogs, Stella and Gia. Stella, the tan coloured dog, happens to be Gia’s mother. Despite the age difference, Gia was the one on her best behaviour while Stella had the excitement of a puppy exploring Aperture Part in west Lethbridge.

We started out with more classic posed portraits while we still had the dogs’ attention. Once our safe photos were finished, it was time for action shots! Each dog has her own set of special tricks (Stella’s “gopher” pose and Gia’s dancing were the cutest from each). Jacey’s parents described her as “the dog whisperer” and she was able to get the dogs to do everything we needed for photos!

At the end of the session, both dogs got to let loose with rolling in the leaves and chasing sticks. They did so great considering how crazy the wind was that day. The only signs of it were in their wind-swept ears!

This year was a time of huge change for Erin and Ross. At the same time they welcomed their new baby girl into their home, their beloved dog Lazer received a disappointing diagnosis from his vet. Lazer has been with them for years so he was like their first child before the kids arrived. They wanted to make sure their kids would remember what an important part of the family he was, so he became the centre point of their newborn family photos.

Newborn Mae was, of course, the other focus! Mae had arrived home only a few days before and had quickly settled in. She calmly slept through all of the noise and commotion of photos, including a very curious cat (we tried to get the kitty in the family photos, but she was not having it!) and her older brother loudly watching the Lion King. Big brother Kieran did great through photos and loved posing with his sister. This was his first time getting to hold her because he had just gotten over his cold. The Lion King was a great reward for his awesome modelling!

Lazer also did fantastic and loved snuggling with his family, though he was confused as to why he was suddenly allowed on the couch!

This year I decided to highlight all of the 2020 Lethbridge PAW Society calendar cats in one big post, rather than a bunch of smaller blogs that I tend to forget to share on social media! Lots of kitties ahead!

This year’s calendar had a sports theme so I focused on getting action shots of any cats who had the energy and a favourite toy. We had some hilarious results! Whether thanks to a piece of string or a good hit of catnip, some of these cats went wild for their playtime!

All kitties are adoption success stories from the Lethbridge PAW Society and were photographed in their loving forever homes.

Part 2 of the year in review features the portrait side of things!

The most exciting part of 2019 is that it was my 10th full year of being in business and I ran a bunch of fun giveaways. I’ve met a few of the winners, and can’t wait to photograph the rest of them next year!

It’s definitely hard this year to keep this post to a reasonable size with all of the fun things that have been in front of my camera. The year started off with a couples photo session turned marriage proposal (she said yes!).

I was able to photograph a few amazing performances (Diva Cabaret, A Streetcar Named Desire) and had a ton of fun with athletic shots with a Tae Kwon Do blackbelt and local wrestler.

Pets were wonderful as always, with a cat helping announce the arrival of a new baby, and being able to celebrate Louis the dog’s 10th birthday party with a picnic.

2019 was also the year of family reunions and landmark birthdays! Thelma was the record holder this year, celebrating her 100th birthday. Groupings of 20+ family members were common this year, making any families of 10 people seem itty bitty.

Because I’m not busy enough already, 2019 was my first full year being a member of a local BNI chapter (I’m crazy enough to have taken on the Vice President role of our chapter in October). This has led to creating great relationships with other local business owners and being able to create marketing photographs for them. The highlight of being a member came at the end of the year when I was referred to join an amazing trip to New York as the group’s photographer.

I hope you enjoy looking through our best portraits of 2019 as much as I liked choosing them!

It’s always wonderful when Santa Paws comes to town! We continued our new annual tradition of pet photos with Santa at the Bone & Biscuit location in Crossings in west Lethbridge. This year we raised $700 for Misty Creek Dog Rescue!

We had a few repeat visitors from last year, plus lots of new whiskered faces. Our smallest visitor was Buttons the hamster, while our largest (and by far the most terrified) was the Great Dane puppy. We only had one hissing cat (pictured below), one crying child (also pictured below), and one potty accident (fortunately NOT pictured below).

Thank you to everyone who came to visit Santa and support this great cause!