EXPECTATIONS by THE BAPTISM PHOTOGRAPHER IN LISBON

Photo of the baby, who has just been baptized, on her mother’s lap, playing with a plant in the garden

• Pode ler este artigo em Português. 

To fulfill a duty

The main wish of a baptism photographer, or wedding, in charge of covering, is to get a full bag of photos that makes him feel that he fulfilled his duty with the client and, at the same time, to have auto satisfaction when he is choosing the photos for the edit.

I used to say to my clients in the meetings that when I start to photograph, on the day, they find me right for their wedding, that very emotional day, it is not for them that I am doing it. If, on the one side, I only worry about them all the time I may let go of the stories that happen with the people around them, that deserve, also, all the attention I can get, because they are a part of the day.

On the other side, I can not do my work properly if I am, all the time, thinking about how they would like it done, what were the things more important to them, and multiply that method for all the clients that I ever had and those coming ahead in the front of my cameras, with that joy they have on every single one wedding day. It was as if I was working connected to her mind inside my own.

Strange, wasn’t it?

Trust in the photographer in the christening

So, once proven that the job is mine and my kind of work is what they want for their wedding, I only ask them to trust me and let me work as if I were not there. Like that, all the parts do their job.

The baptism, or wedding, the photographer will be photographing and who will be baptized, or married, do all the things for it. With that, I know I will tell the story of the happenings and, at least until today, who takes it will carry the satisfaction of having been well told. I know, from experience, that the expectations will break, from both parts of the process, the naturalness that we want and compromise the result.

Imagine the parents of an almost baptized child verifying, all the time the work of the photographer, if he is doing things as they have imagined it. The result, for sure, will be no good.

At the christening, everyone does what they have to do

So, let each one do his job and things will happen how they should happen. Who does, photographing, will bring the photos, and the result, certainly, will reward the agreement.

In addition to those photos, that tell the story as it happens, we will find those jewels that, like a miner bringing beautiful gems, will make smile with wrinkles in the eyes of all those who find them, who see them, like this one of Leonor and his mother. 

Completely with each other, in a world that only they know and feel.

Only by respecting that agreement, where everyone does their own thing, it is possible to find these jewels like this one, which was not the only one, I assure you. If you agree with this, I will be in yours. Baptism or wedding.

Dot by dot:

• When I start photographing a christening, I know I’m doing it out of a duty to deliver what I’ve committed to doing, but as soon as the day begins, it’s for the photographer that I get down to work.

• As soon as everything starts, each party does their part: the family and child are in charge of getting ready, being at the ceremony, and then at the christening party, and the photographer is in charge of covering it as if it were for him. This way, no one interferes with the other’s part.

• That’s why the christening photos come out real on one side and are captured as such by the other. In the end, when the photographs are put together, they tell a story exactly as it was and how it will be seen forever. The duty, of the photographer, has been fulfilled.

You need to know:

• It is this commitment, respected by the parties, that makes it possible for the truth of the baptism day to be told as many times as you like, by the photographs that were taken there. To find out more, contact me for a chat.