Way back on the Thanksgiving weekend (seems like a year ago already!) while everyone was stuffing themselves with turkey and fixings, I was on my way out to a church in Orleans, where I had the very great honour of photographing the baptism of gorgeous, blue-eyed Baby M.
I loved the idea of photographing a baptism from the moment I first spoke to M’s mom. Just like a wedding, I thought to myself, with all the family and a beautiful ceremony – but about 1/10th of the pressure!
It’s a good thing I had a vague idea what to expect from my own Catholic upbringing, though, because my moderate to middling French did not prepare me to be able to follow the entire service in French. The one time I lost absolute track of what the priest was trying to say was of course just after I had picked out the phrase “and when it comes to photographs…” Ah well, I didn’t get any dirty looks and did manage to capture the important parts of the service, so I guess my internal translator was more or less on target. In fact, I had a lot of fun trying to capture all the little “moments” to tell the story of the ceremony – more than a few shot from the hip because I didn’t want to be disrespectful of the ceremony itself.
Despite it being a rather gloomy evening, and despite the fact that the photographer had only the most tenuous linguistic grasp on the proceedings, and despite the fact that the guest of honour didn’t seem to be particularly delighted to be the centre of attention, it turned out to be an absolutely lovely ceremony.
My deepest thanks to Baby M’s lovely extended family inviting me and my camera to be a part of your day, and special thanks to Granny who had no problem holding off an extra day on our own extended family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Now that’s what I call the best of both worlds!
And that also reminds me that I really, REALLY have to get organized and get one last boy in *this* family baptized!
Wow! Those are really pretty photographs of an event I never would have hired a photographer for but now I wish I did!
Great job Dani! I have photographed a lot of baptisms over the year and they can be tricky for several reasons. #1. church lighting can be uber challenging #2 you need to be respectful to the sacrament itself and not be in the way. Every church has different rules. Ironically, I don’ t have any photos of my boys being baptised and we weren’t allowed to take any during the actual ceremony.
You did a great job!
We’re getting my son baptized this Sunday and I’m nervous – not being Catholic myself but open to it and glad we are doing it for my boy. I hadn’t thought about photos at all – oops! Yours are beautiful.