You may have seen pictures of girls dressed up in beautiful white dresses or boys in suits. If you aren’t familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ culture, you may have wondered why. Members believe kids are born innocent, so they aren’t baptized until they are able to understand right from wrong (traditionally at the age of 8). It’s a really important day in their life, much like a christening day would be for a baby in other religions. Most kids get a special white dress for their baptism day or a suit, and that’s what they wear in their baptism photos. Pictures are usually taken in advance (not on the same day) so they can be used on the baptism invitations if the family chooses to invite family and a few friends, which most do.

If you live in Utah where access to an LDS temple is easy, those are popular places to do the session. However, I’ve done them in the mountains, and also in-studio before. All are great options, and the location is really just up to where the mom wants them taken. During the session, I always get several shots at a really wide angle that include the temple spire. Then I work into get full body shot, then I moved in a little closer to get pictures from the waist up as well as close ups. Though out the session I also look for ways to capture the details of the dress, and their hair. For boys I still do closeups of them adjusting their tie or buttoning their suit. There is usually writing on the temple walls at the front entrance which is also neat to incorporate. Kids sometimes bring their scriptures or a CTR ring (which stands for CHOOSE THE RIGHT) to add into the session.

Here is my latest baptism session (a mini session, which you can see on the info page of my website), at the Draper Utah temple.