Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

Leslie is happiest when it snows, so when her friend treated her to a headshot session as a Christmas gift, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! We planned her Lethbridge winter headshot session at the very last minute (the snow was falling that night and would melt within two days) and headed over to Aperture Park on the west side with Leslie’s favourite winter coats in tow. Leslie is a talented author and a joy to be around, so I wanted to make sure her new book portraits matched her personality.

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Last winter, Denise and Craig had an awesome idea to do Coalhurst outdoor ice rink hockey photos, but there was no snow! Winter kind of skipped us that year. Luckily (for their concept, not local travellers), 2018 was the year of snow! The ice rink was well maintained and surrounded by heaps snow, perfect for the winter look they wanted. They put on their favorite Oilers jerseys, grabbed their hockey sticks, and set out onto the ice for their couples photoshoot.

Their cute little dogs Sadie and Piper came equipped with their own matching jerseys. It was their first time “skating” and they did surprisingly well! I think their low centers of gravity definitely helped. The only challenge was figuring out how to run on the ice, but the snow banks surrounding the rink made that part a little easier. Piper especially loved sliding down the packed snow.

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Kayla and Lucas chose their wedding date because of its historical importance to them. With it being a couple weeks into the official start of spring, they had hoped this would mean a spring wedding. Our weather this year had other plans! We instead spent the day taking snowy Waterton elopement photography.

Waterton has received so much snow this year that there is an entire residential street that is closed due to avalanche warnings. Within the town, you can walk up to the rooftops of many buildings thanks to the drifted snow banks. We were a little limited for locations unless we were to snowshoe, try bouldering the 10 foot banks from the snow plows, or chisel away a new tunnel. Instead, we went for the easy choices of Cameron Falls and the Prince of Wales Hotel (which were still a lot harder to navigate than normal!).

We first met Kayla and Lucas, their baby boy, and their friends at the Waterton Lakes Lodge to get a few indoor photos before faces became flushed from the cold. Once outside, Kayla and Lucas had no trouble snuggling in close to stay warm! Honestly, I think they would have snuggled just as hard had it been warm out, judging by the adoring looks they gave each other all day.

They held their elopement ceremony on the front stone steps of the Waterton Community Center. Their baby was a champ in the cold and made it through all the photos at Cameron Falls as well as half the ceremony before he had had enough! Kayla and Lucas were so lost in their vows that they didn’t know how cold their fingers and toes were getting until after their first kiss.

Congratulations, Kayla and Lucas!

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Tanya was in need of updated professional headshot photos and her house made a great studio! She collects artwork on her travels and it added such great pops of colour in the background. By the way, doesn’t she have a great name? ;) Even her dog Will got to update his headshots while he waited for her to switch outfits.

After her headshots, we finished the session with Lethbridge winter coulee pet photos. Tanya regularly goes cross country skiing with Will. There wasn’t quite enough snow at the edge of the coulees to actually put her skis on, but we brought them along to pose with.

One sign of a good photographer is being able to photograph black pets and still have details show. I think it is an entirely new challenge to photograph a white dog in the snow! In a few spots the snow was a little deep for Will but he had so much fun bounding through the powder!

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Christine and Joe didn’t quite have the engagement session we were expecting! We had booked their photos many weeks in advance to take place over the February long weekend. Our plan was to drive out to the Crowsnest Pass, and we hoped there would still be some snow left. The last two Februarys have been a little dry here, so we didn’t want to get our hopes up too much! As their photography date approached, we heard tales of daily highway closures. Then it came: yet another heavy snowfall warning on our travel day! In the end, they had a very snowy west Lethbridge engagement session just as the huge snowfall began its descent.

As a substitute “forest,” we met at Aperture Park on the west side and hiked through snow that ranged from one inch to two feet deep. Christine and Joe were such amazing sports about it! Christine feels the same way about winter as I do (which is not favourably), yet they perfectly acted like everything was warm and fine. Even while being pelted by snow, they were so lost in each other. Joe couldn’t resist nuzzling into her and making them both break out in huge grins.

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Kristen was the lucky winner of a gift certificate in support of the YMCA and used the opportunity to get outdoor Lethbridge winter family photos with her boys for Christmas. In keeping with the Christmas theme, it was perfect that there was so much fresh snow and that it had finally warmed up enough that they didn’t have to be bundled up for our harsh Canadian weather.

Her boys were hilarious, having no problems making silly faces on command and racing each other through the snow. It’s also obvious how much they love their mom and loved taking breaks from playing together to snuggle with her.

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