my first baptism. { frost on flower }

Last weekend I photographed a baptism, it was my first time.  I was approached by the family somewhat last minute and happened to be open that morning so it worked out perfectly.

I met them at the church before the service to get some quick family photos.  The mama grew up going to this church - her dad was the pastor.  She actually lived in the home next door.  Their son was baptized in the same church by her father and they wanted the same for their daughter, despite living out of state.  Her father is no longer the pastor here but was able to come back just for the baptism, so it was certainly a special occasion.







Grace was a pretty amusing little one.  Her family kept trying to help me get her attention and doing things to make her laugh.  But, for the most part, her smile and laugh involves her mouth being completely wide open and her nose all scrunched up.  I was able to get some shots of the before or after wide mouth amused expression but so many of them were just hilariously wide open.  Of course I also passed those on because it's a great little phase she's going through!









I was confined to my pew for the duration of the service so I had a limited amount of things I could photograph and few ways to vary the angles.





The church's pastor said that I could move around and use flash.. whatever I wanted basically, but Grace's grandfather requested that I stay seated and not use flash.



During the sermon I snapped photos of Grace and her family while trying to not be distracting to the congregation.





It was helpful to me that their weekly handout goes through their service step by step - I knew exactly what to sing and say the entire time.  Except when it was communion time I didn't realize they use wine.. I'm used to juice.  Whoops!





Despite being stuck in a pew I was able to get a good perspective of what was happening during the baptism.  Capturing the sign of the cross was very important to the mama.













After she was baptized, Grace was presented to the congregation by her grandfather.



Overall it was a really neat experience.  I enjoyed being able to photograph Grace's baptism.  The service ran a lot longer than we had planned for but I had a great time experiencing this church that I've driven past quite a few times!