I’ve done my fair share of baptism and religious ceremony photography, and every single faith, house of worship, and ritual have their own unique challenges and rewards. Outside of lighting and posing, there are other considerations like media policies, ceremony criteria, and a host of other customs to be mindful of while covering these often solemn events. As such, I am constantly learning and exploring new avenues of this style of photography. This church in particular had a strict NO PHOTOS policy regarding their baptism (as in NONE, at all, can be taken by anyone, with anything…even mom can’t take a phone picture!), which is not something either I nor the parents knew about until just before the big day. So, we had to work around this limitation as creatively as possible, and arranged for a pre-baptism family session inside the church, capturing baby by herself, and with her parents, in different scenarios that hopefully tell the story of a baptism without having any actual photos of said activity. I think we did it!

Here are some of my favorite images from this shoot (click/tap to to view full-size and un-cropped):

To see more examples of this style of photography, visit my religious ceremonies gallery >>

All images in this blog post were shot on a Nikon D750, using a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, all individually post-processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic using custom-built presets.

Jinnifer Douglass is a full-time freelance photographer based in NYC, shooting both digital and film for individuals and brands such as Google, Door Dash, Make Up For Ever, Squarespace, and more! Specializing in portraits, food, and special events, she works to make every piece of your social and website content ‘Insta-worthy’ with high resolution, full-frame DSLR photography and expert Lightroom editing. Interested in chatting? Leave a comment below, or send an email to hello@jinyc-photo.com!