I'm photographing a methodist baby baptism this Sunday morning, and I've been trying to find the rules/etiquette on shooting the service.

What I know that I'm doing is arriving about 1 hour before the church service starts, in order to shoot some family portraits in the courtyard of the church. Also, the babies to be baptised are twins.

Any help?? Any examples??

Hi Carrie,

I'm Methodist, and we are more laid back than many churches. Meaning - you will probably be allowed to photograph it. (I have photographed a few baptisms - one I could photograph/one I couldn't - and one was with twins too!)

The baptism will not take long. They will call the family up to the front of the church - usually a few extened family members will go up as well. The minister will read and the family and church members will respond. The minister will hold the baby and then reach over to the [vessel that holds the water?] and sprinkle the baby's head. That is about it. Then, the minister may or may not walk around the church for a few minutes and let everyone see the baby.

Some things you could photograph prior to or after: page from hymnal with the response or a song page from the service, the baptismal gown (big deal in the south), the order of worship service paper that is handed out to everyone, someone will probably have given the baby a special Bible...that is about all I can think of - it's early...

I'm not Methodist...but I have shot Catholic baptisms before. I don't think the faith is as much of a factor as the person performing the ceremony (kind of the same with weddings, ya' know?). Just talk to him or her beforehand and ask what restrictions there are. I know with my 3 kids' baptisms...the deacon who did the first two kids let anyone walk around anywhere to shoot whatever...and, for my youngest son, the priest told everyone they had to remain in their seats and no one would be allowed to come up and take pictures. (hmmmppphhh!!)

I photographed a Catholic baptism last weekend. Even within the same faith, it seems that each church has different rules, so I always try to find out ahead of time. At this church, there were no restrictions on photography at all.

Here's one of my favorites from the ceremony (if you want to see more: slideshow andblog)



I love shooting baptisms! Have fun!

-Jessica

I have photographed a couple of these mostly in the Methodist church where my father is the pastor. So I pretty much had free reign over over what I did. But here is the page layout of the album page I put together for a "Year in the Life" book I put together for a family with the dedication pictures I took. Jill is right all and all we are pretty much laid back. Make sure you talk with the pastor ahead of time to ask is he has any requirements and you should be fine.

Here's one of my baptism slideshows...if you're curious...