Baptisms on the Beach

There is a  yearly tradition at my church, Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara and even though this is only my second time attending, I can honestly say that is quickly becoming one of my favorite events of  the year.

Every year, the church meets at a local beach or pool, grills up some AMAZING food (BBQ Tacos this year!) and performs baptisms for those who want to publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ.

This event is always very well attended and this year was no exception. Even with cold stormy weather an the threat of rain, I estimate that we had 150-200 people show up for the event. What an amazing time.

Of course, the event resonates for me so well, because last year, Sept 1st, 2011, I was baptized at Goleta Beach, putting an exclamation point on my rededicated walk with Jesus Christ last year.

That happy fellow is me, just after getting baptized last year.

“Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:3-4)

I can't believe that it has been just over one year since I was baptized. I can look back on this past year and see how far I have come in my walk with the Lord and yet also reflect on some regrettable and shameful mistakes I have made in the past year and how far I desire and still need to go. Sometimes the Lord can find a way to keep us all humble and rooted in him. I am just forever grateful that he is one who's forgiveness is everlasting. I come up so short, so often, yet he still keeps accepting me. Nobody said that a new walk with Christ would be an easy one, however, given time, patience and bit of humility, God's Grace will renew your spirit if you trust in him.

As a photographer, the one thing that I really missed out on last year, was that there was nobody there to take a picture of the moment.  I remember being so filled with the Holly Spirit, I wish that there was somebody who would have taken a picture of me at that moment as I had just come out of the water. Something that I could look back upon and remind me of the joy I was feeling that day.

Well, I am a photographer, so I decided to do something a little extra special. Instead of doing "event style" photography taking random pictures of people at the beach, using a long lens and shallow aperture in available light, I decided to do more of a portrait session with off-camera flash.

WARNING: Semi-Technical Photographer Mumbo-Jumbo Ahead

The setup was simple. I had an 12' heavy-duty light stand, anchored to the beach with three 26 lb sand bags. Raised to level of about 8' was a Westcott Boom arm supporting a 50" Westcott Apollo softbox.  The light was a single Nikon SB-900 speedlight triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5.

Using the Pocket Wizard AC3 Zone Controller on top of my Flex Mini, attached to my trusty Nikon D700, I was able  to quickly adjust the output of the flash, wirelessly, for each shot.  This was especially important, because a 50" nylon softbox is essentially a kite if there is any breeze whatsoever. When that kite is attached to a boom arm and light stand anchored with over 70 lbs of weight, it essentially becomes a weather vane, and moves and  shifts position however the wind blows.  In other words, for each shot, the light would be in a different position, so I would have to dial the flash up or down as needed. I couldn't have done it without the AC3 Zone COntroller. I LOVE this piece of kit!

END OF: Semi-Technical Photographer Mumbo-Jumbo HERE

One by one, the people who were newly baptized, came up and I had the privilege of photographing them in their moment of rebirth and glory with the Lord. What a blessing it was to be able to share in this moment with them.  With my own baptism only one year removed, I was reminded again, how glorious our Lord Jesus Christ is, just how lucky I am to have him as my savior, and how blessed I am to have other to share in his glory.

 =BM=