Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Each time I photograph Jennifer and David’s family, it seems to increase by one! This last year we welcomed Adelyn into their spring blossom family session. Big sister Kalina had already honed her baby sibling holding skills the year before with Erwin, and it was a little easier this time after a whole year of growing taller! Erwin loved hanging out with his sister and even wanted to be included when it wasn’t his turn for a photo.

Their family was massively taken out for a while with the kids passing colds back and forth to each other, so we just about missed the spring blossoms but caught the last of them just in time! (The kids survived their session thanks to lots of goop being wiped out of eyes between shots.) After being stuck at home for a week, they were all so excited to be outside playing! Luckily photos hide the fact that most of them lost their voices ;)

What better way to spend an evening than with Newfoundland dog flower crown portraits? Friendly is the epitome of a gentle giant. Her name perfectly fits her personality!

At only one year old, this big girl is already so well trained. Her stay and recall were on point, and she mostly tolerated having flowers on her! Friendly’s only real struggle was not eating all the awesome sticks at Aperture Park in west Lethbridge. We had to take a few breaks as large chunks of tree were repeatedly fished out of her mouth. She got her fill of fibre during her photos!

Working with a dog this size comes with it’s own unqiue set of challenges. We had to take frequent breaks for slobber wipe up, especially once the tasty sticks were discovered. And when Friendly decided she wanted to go somewhere else, it took a lot of strength from her person to convince her otherwise!

Martha is a very dear friend of one of my favorite university professors that I’ve ever had. I’ve seen so many photos of her and heard so many of their adventures that I almost felt like I knew her before I met her! As part of her graduation gift, Martha’s friend treated her to convocation portraits. This year Martha accomplished the huge achievement of graduating with a University of Lethbridge Masters Degree in Environmental Science.

We did the photos at the University of Lethbridge to honour the hard work she put in on campus. However, Martha was feeling a little done with her studies by that point so we stuck to more of the natural landscape around the university rather than looking at the buildings. The lilacs are amazing this year and were still in bloom on campus so we took full advantage of them.

Upon meeting Martha you can immediately sense how kind and positive she is. This was even more apparent in how happy she looked wearing several layers with her cap and gown in the heat! It was super hot that day – unbelievably so! – but Martha was full of smiles and laughter.

Congratulations on your graduation, Martha!

It’s been a few years since I last saw Julie and Chad, and since then they’ve had an adorable new addition to the family! They used my mini sessions to do some Lethbridge spring blossom newborn photos of Connor. He’s not quite a newborn any more, but pretty close! He was adorable in his little bow-tie and was fascinated by all of the white flower petals falling around him. His mom and dad just gushed with happiness snuggling him!

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The last time I photographed Jennifer and David’s family, it was just the three of them with Kalina. This time we had four with their newest family member, Erwin! As a special addition to their Lethbridge pink blossom family mini session, Grandma and Grandpa came along for a few photos. Kalina hardly left her grandma’s side, leading her around by the hand whenever they weren’t in photos together. Their grandparents were masters at getting them to laugh!

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This Indian Battle Park extended family photography session was a Christmas gift that was meant to take place outdoors back in December, but it was -30C the entire time the family was together! They made the wise decision to postpone until spring when everyone could actually be happy and comfortable in the photos. After a heavy rainfall earlier that day, everything was so green and fresh in the river bottom!

Three generations got together for this family session. The middle generation are part of a blended family, so they had both sets of their parents involved. Without my handy list of how everyone is related, it would have been impossible to tell sibling from cousin, sister from step sister, etc. Even all of the people who married into the family get along so comfortably with everyone that it’s hard to tell who is the sibling and who is the spouse! Everyone makes up one tightly knit family despite moving away, having children of their own, and seeing less of each other. This was such a great environment for the little kids who were happy to run to anyone there for comfort!

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