Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

I’m always so excited to do animal rescue dog photography to help our four legged friends find their forever homes. One of the last dogs I got to photograph was gentle giant Twister. Her and her foster family met me at Park Lake for her adoption profile photos. She didn’t mind one bit that there were other people and dogs at the lake. She was too focused on all the awesome sticks and my funny noises!

Twister was very quickly adopted through the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS).

Now that’s a view! When I arrived at their home, I wasn’t at all surprised why Dee and Rich decided to use their Christmas gift from their daughters for Tecumseh Road family photos in their own backyard. Their patio area had a perfect view of the mountain range and the river just past the highway in the Crowsnest Pass. They also had a cute little forest that hugged all the homes in their neighbourhood. We almost did this session in the winter but I’m so glad they waited, because the fresh spring green colour in the trees contrasted so nicely against the mountain vistas.

We included the girls’ partners in lots of the photos, but also focused on the original crew, including recreating a photo Dee had of the girls when they were young. Everyone had a great time, especially their dogs once they got to join in on the excitement!

Ralphie & Lady’s human mom Taelynn booked her girls a cat photo session. Taelynn cited “cats being adorable” as their special occasion for the photos, and I couldn’t agree more! Both kitties are 10 years old but still extremely playful, especially once catnip gets brought out. You need to work with cats in ways where they are always comfortable, so there was a lot of chasing as we bounced from one piece of their favourite furniture to another.

We mostly focused on the cats, but Taelynn was on hand to jump in for a few photos and offer assistance wildly waving toys around (her hand made it into a lot of hilarious action shots). I had so much fun playing with the kitties!

This year we had very ambitious goals for Santa Paws! With the opening of The Bone & Biscuit’s second Lethbridge location on Mayor Magrath this year, we decided to do two days of Santa visiting pets. It’s a good thing we had the extra space available because even with doubling the number of appointments we took per hour from last year, we filled every spot and had to turn many pups away!

We saw the return of many familiar faces (and whiskers), some of which added new members to their family, and we made lots of new friends. So many more kitties came to see Santa this year, and everyone was on their best behaviour. Santa got lots of kisses but hardly got de-bearded, and never got knocked over once. We did hit a new record with 4 potty accidents on one day though!

Money was raised for Wag-A-Muffins Animals Rescue and we thank everyone who brought their pets for helping support this rescue.

Emmalyn arrived a few weeks earlier than expected, which was quite a surprise for her mom and dad who were expanding their business at the same time and trying to focus on opening a new location before she arrived. She quickly changed their focus (and added a few long days for her dad). We did the photos on her original due date, so even though she had been hanging around for a couple weeks, she was still newborn tiny and fit perfectly in her parents’ hands.

Her mom had some favourite photo ideas of what she wanted their photoshoot to look like, so we went with a very simple newborn photo session. This meant clean backgrounds and lots of photos that would look great in black and white, and with a focus on Emmalyn.

Emmalyn did throw a bit of a wrench in our plans in that she refused to do any photos where she wasn’t being held! As a result we got so many great photos with her mom and dad holding her. In the end she compromised with us by doing a few by herself as long as she was swaddled.

Claudette and Marc had plenty of things to celebrate and combined it all for autumn family and pet photos. The couple were recently engaged so it was a perfect time to update family photos with the boys, as well as get a few cute engagement photos.

They also wanted to celebrate their older dog Stella while she’s still full of energy (the river bottom brought out extra energy). While Stella is in her senior years, little Monte is a brand new addition to the family!

After some cute photos with the dogs, they were put back in the warm vehicle so things could be a little more chill for the human members of the family.

We had to work quickly… after a gorgeous autumn week, Claudette and Marc’s photoshoot was scheduled just one hour before the first big snowfall of the season started! It was MUCH colder than these photos let on! ;)