» Archive for the 'Christenings / Baptisms' Category

Greek Orthodox Baptism of Lucas

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 by Kapa

At the Greek Orthodox Parish & Community Of The Resurrection Of Our Lord; Our Lady Of Myrtles; Saint Elessa, in Kogarah, young Lucas was baptised. The light in this church is a huge contrast to the photographs I took last week at Chrisovalantou’s christening. Here I was relying a lot less on natural light and much more on flash.

Here is a candid of Lucas with his godmother before the service began.

godmother, lucas, greek, orthodox, christening

A very proud grandmother holding Lucas before being immersed in the baptismal font.

grandmother, lucas, greek, orthodox, christening

The godmother anoints Lucas with oil all over the body. Do you the smiley :-)

godmother, anoints, oil, olive, greek, orthodox, christening

The priest pouring water of Lucas’ head & body.

priest, water, head, greek, orthodox, baptism

All done, about to go into the waiting arms of the godmother.

godmother, lucas, greek, orthodox, christening

How Good is This !!!!!! Not only a baptism cake, but a stack of cup cakes to match.

baptism cake, christening cake, baptism cup cake, christening cup cake

Orthodox Christening of Chrysovalantou

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by Kapa

Today I was at the Greek Orthodox Parish of ‘St. Stylianos; Saints Peter & Paul & St. Gregory of Palama’ for the Christening of Chrysovalantou. The service started at the rear of the church, where the godmother stands and vouches for Chrysovalantou, since she is unable to make the necessary confession of faith herself.

godmother vouches infant greek orthodox christening

Chrysovalantou’s older brother holding the candle for the service.

brother holding christening candle greek orthodox

I was having a bit of a play with selective colouring on this photo. The Olive Oil was a lot more yellow however with the light it’s come through more of an orange.

godmother olive oil greek orthodox christening

Chrysovalantou has stunning blue eyes, this was taken less than a second before they started crying.

godmother vouches infant greek orthodox christening

Inside the baptismal font.

godmother vouches infant greek orthodox christening

The first offering – a lock of hair.

A tip for any budding photographers out there, learn how to use the manual settings on your camera. Look at the background of this photograph. There was a huge amount of glare that was coming through the opaque doors and windows at this time of the day. I almost always shoot with manual settings, and compensating for this much glare was a quick flick. No automatic / program modes would be able to handle this much contrast as well.

godmother vouches infant greek orthodox christening

Chrysovalandou is blessed with four older sisters, here is three of them dressing her after the baptism.

sisters dressing baby greek orthodox christening

The sun was setting towards the end of the service, I absolutely love the colour generated here – by natural light.

godmother sun setting greek orthodox christening

A delicious looking Christening Cake with a lot of attention to detail.

christening cake, baptism cake

Mikaelas Greek Orthodox Christening

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 by Kapa

One of the things I truly enjoy about being a baptism photographer is when I get a call from a family to photograph the christening of their next child. This is the case with Mikaela, I met her family back in September 2007 for her older brother Stevens Christening.

The baptism was held at the same church, the Greek Orthodox Parish & Community of Kogarah. Here the priest is conducting the first part of the service which is held near the the doorway.

orthodox christening baptism priest church

Part of the service the godfather (godparent) rubs oil all over the child.

orthodox christening baptism child baby oil church

Mikaela in the baptismal font, I love capturing this moment.

orthodox christening baptism baptismal font water

Back when I photographed Stevens Christening, his father had a Chrysler Charger, check it out below.

charger church black white

A true Chrysler man, here is the family shot taken with the new car.

charger church black white

The delicious christening cake with the gorgeous backdrop taken at the St George Motor Boat Club.

baptism cake christening cake St George motor boat club

Here’s a shot of Steven & his cousin taken just as the sun was starting to set. Sydney has some great locations on the water, this is one of them.

St George motor boat club

During speeches, a candid fun moment captured.

During speeches, a candid fun moment captured.

Greek Orthodox Christening of Chloe

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 by Kapa

Today I was at the Greek Orthodox Parish & Community of ‘St. Andrew’ in Gladesville to photograph the orthodox christening of Chloe. The ‘psalti’ reads the Creed with Chloe’s parents captured in the background.

greek orthodox christening gladesville st andrew

Chloe being immersed in the baptismal font.

greek orthodox christening immersed baptismal font gladesville st andrew

After the service, Chloe grabbing a power nap on mums shoulder.

greek orthodox christening child sleeping mother

A tight portrait with Chloe, Mum & the Godmother.

greek orthodox christening mother godmother child

Soon after, Chloe was snuggled up into her dads shoulder, grabbed this (my favourite shot of the day) using natural light and the aperture wide open.

black white baby big brown eyes aperture wide open f2.8

The reception was at Banjo Patterson’s Cottage Restaurant, and while everyone was enjoying drinks during a beautiful (but humid) Sydney day, I was grabbing candid shots of the family & guests.

mother daughter candid smiling laughing

A very impressive cake put together by Sweet Art.

christening cake, sweet art

And a signature bear for all the guests to sign.

signature bear for christening

Kids entertainment was provided by “Fairy Star” from FairyCrystal.

fairy star kids entertainment

While Fairy Star was telling her story, the expression on Chloe’s face was priceless.

baby deep expression

Chloe giving me the Robert de Nero “Are you looking at me” look.

baby are you looking at me

Had some time to capture some cute portraits using an off-camera flash.

baby cute portrait
smiling happy baby
baby christening dress

Happy Valentines Day :-)

Catholic Baptism of Matthew

Sunday, January 24th, 2010 by Kapa

I thought I was going to have a challenging day today…..as soon as I said hello to Matthew he broke out tears. Obviously a photographer with a big scary camera & flash frightened him, however he soon started to get comfortable with me around.

sydney photography baptism christening

Soon after he got dressed managed to capture some cute photographs.

sydney photography baptism christening

sydney photography borromeo baptism christening

Here is Mathew with his big sister Laura. I met Laura over 2 years ago when she was an infant, I photographed her baptism as well.

sydney photography baptism christening charles

The church was St Charles Borromeo in Ryde, I got there a bit early & captured this using natural light.

st charles borromeo sydney photography baptism christening

Father Paul had a good demeanour with the children. He invited them up to the baptismal font & explained the significance of the Water.

st charles borromeo father paul sydney photography baptism christening

He then got all the children to assist in the blessing of the water.

st charles borromeo father paul sydney photography baptism christening

Matthew getting baptised with his very proud parents looking on.

st charles borromeo baptismal font sydney photography baptism

A close-up of the water being poured on Mathew’s head from a shell.

st charles borromeo f photography baptism christening

Here is a couple of candid shots I liked, both capturing a special moment.

photographer sydney baptism christening

sydney photography baptism photographer christening

Eleni

Sunday, April 26th, 2009 by Kapa

It was a sense of Déjà vu at the Greek Orthodox Parish of ‘St. Paraskeve & St. Barbara’. I guess it’s best to explain the feeling I had with photos.

I took this photo of Eleni today.

greek photography photographer orthodox baptism christening

Yet two months ago at Kalista’s christening, I took this photo.

sydney wedding photographer

So when it came to selecting a photo of the baby in the baptismal font, I decided to stray from my regular black and white photos and try something different, what do you think of this treatment?

sydney christening photographer

Sometimes I stand back & take a wider shot, not just the baby, gives a bit of perspective to what’s happening.

sydney baptism photographer

I’m keeping today’s entry short, been a long day and there’s a cold beer waiting for me ;-)

Mia

Sunday, March 29th, 2009 by Kapa

The best compliment I receive for my photography is when I get repeat business from the same clients. This is the case today with the Greek Orthodox baptism of Mia. Almost 2 years ago in April 2007, I photographed the baptism of her elder sister Eleftheria. My how she’s grown into a lovely young lady.

eleftheria greek orthodox baptism christening

I always take still photography of what the godparents bring, the cross, candle, clothes, box, toys, I try to capture everything. Mia got herself a gorgeous pair of shoes.

shoes baptism christening greek orthodox wedding

If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you’ll know I love using natural light where possible, which is rarely an option in most churches. It was a bright Sydney day and the light was beaming into St Nicholas church Marrickville which helped me capture this moment.

photographer photgraphy natural light sydney

The proud grandmothers, after stripping Mia before her big moment.

greek photographer sydney orthox wedding baptism christening

My favourite shot, the baby in the baptismal font, which I always love to convert into black & white.

black white baby baptismal font christening baptism

And after a long day, a drink & a lye down is the way to end it.

sydney photographer

Kalista

Saturday, February 28th, 2009 by Kapa

Young Kalista was baptised on the last day of the short month at the Greek Orthodox church, Annunciation of our Lady. My first pic is the godmother is anointing her with oil, sadly in the current climate I’m forced to pixelate parts of the image.

greek orthodox anointing oil baby baptism christening

There was a great moment during the service, Kalista turned around and looked at directly at the priest. Don’t know what she was thinking….

greek orthodox baby baptism christening up in air priest

Of course what would a christening in my blog be without the black & white image of the baby in the baptismal font.

greek orthodox black white baby baptismal font

After the service, guests were given a boubouniere that was gorgeously presented.

greek orthodox boubouniere bom bom give sugared almonds baptism christening

The cake was unreal, not only because it looked great, but Kalista’s mum made it herself.

greek orthodox amazing cake gorgeous cake baptism christening

Have a look at the detail in this photograph.

greek orthodox special cake detail icing baptism christening

Now I’m not one that would usually take photo’s of food at a reception, however the baked barramundi looked (and tasted) fantastic.

fantasic baked barramundi

Don’t forget to use the feedback option below, drop me a note, tell me what you want to see.

Maddie and Zac

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 by Kapa

When I first booked this christening, I thought it was going to be twins. When I showed up I discovered it was a double christening, the two getting baptised were first cousins. To confuse the issue even more, the godparents were the parents of the two children, who happen to be siblings, the parents, not the children, they’re cousins. Confused? So am I, lets get to the photo’s.

At the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church in Belmore, there was not only two children being baptised, there were two priests to perform the service. They alternated at different sections; One in Greek the other in English.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

With all the extra people during this service things got a little tight around the baptismal font.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

First was Zac, with his Auntie (now Godmother) is just about to start covering him in oil.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

Zac enjoying the water.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

First haircut.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

Then it was Maddie’s turn. The oil being poured into her uncle’s (now godfather) hands.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

Unlike Zac, she didn’t seem to enjoy the water.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

Out she came into the white towel.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

With the service over, everyone headed off to the reception at the Campsie Bowling & Recreational Club where a colourful & delicious cake was sitting at the front.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church

A candid during the reception, part of the day I love, capturing moments like this.

belmore all saints greek orthodox church