Photography by Kapa

Today at the Greek Orthodox Parish of ‘Saints Constantine & Helen’ the orthodox Christening of Labro was held. I start with taking photographs of the gear the godparents bring for the service. Here we have a few of the items (shoes, oil, cross) on top of the christening box.

There was also an impressive candle for the service, with a bear tied to it. Take note of the boubouniere later.

The beginning of the service is held at the entrance of the church where Satan is denounced. The godfather holding Labro while the priest reads.

The part of the service I love, where the child is immersed in the baptismal font. Regular followers of my blog know I always show these images in classic black and white, Labro’s Christening is no exception.

A great looking baptism cake, these sloping / off centred seem to be the style lately.

Cute boubouniere that matches the bear on the Christening Candle.

There were a couple of clowns at the reception, face painting was part of the entertainment.

Here is some of their finished work.

John

Started of at the home to get some shots of Danielle & her family, and godparents. Here she is with her brother, I think they were getting a bit stunned by the flash by this stage.

During the service, love the expression on Danielle’s face.

The actual service where the priest is pouring the water onto Danielle’s head.

A simple yet elegant baptism cake.

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.

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

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

The priest pouring water of Lucas’ head & body.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Inside the baptismal font.

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.

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

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

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