Newton's Baptism (and digital disaster)

Little Newton was baptized last Sunday, on Whitsunday. I'm only getting around to noting this today because I had a minor disaster with the camera I've been struggling all week to correct.

The week before, on a photo shoot with the company's new digital photography club, I had been playing with a number of settings but had neglected to restore them when we were done. Then, Because It Was There, on Sunday I set another setting I should have left on Auto.

I would have detected the problems if I'd taken some test shots before the service, but I arrived too late for that. And then the camera got into some odd post-shoot display mode that prevented me from seeing what was going wrong. Holding folks together for the photos was proving difficult, so I wound up just shooting and praying.

When I got home I learned how bad it was. The pictures were all extremely dark with an orange cast. My usual tools could brighten them, but I could not get the colors right. Fortunately I had shot (for the first time) in "RAW" mode, which creates a file that stores what the image sensor actually saw, unprocessed. With some tools I downloaded I was able to get into that image and make it somewhat presentable. We will see.

In any event, Newton was baptized on Whitsunday, or Pentecost, per tradition. I had not known before of such a tradition but it appears it is so, rooted in English history and this is likely the origin of the name Whitsunday, "White Sunday" -- otherwise an odd name for a day whose liturgical color is red!

We've had no long-term consistency for when the baptism is conducted in the service; sometimes it's been at the beginning, sometimes during. The font was up by the altar rail, where it has been usually but not always (and returned to its usual position at the rear of the Nave during the Offertory -- a good move, as it avoided the usual problems we encounter with the font up front later in the service).

As always when there are last-minute "changes" things didn't go perfectly (pressed into service as Crucifer at the last minute, I couldn't find my cassock, though right after the service it was where I expected it to be!), but no real hitches.

And Newton's father -- I don't think I've ever seen him smile so much. Heart-warming.