Bas Mitzvah Photography & Film · Lakewood, NJ
Twelve, and radiant.
A bat mitzvah is the first simcha that belongs to her. We photograph the dvar Torah, the portraits, the candle lighting and the dancing with the same seriousness we bring to a chuppah — and the same warmth we bring to a twelve-year-old and her friends.
Photographs, or films?
Two crafts, one team — choose how you want to see the bat mitzvahs.
The Films begin.
Bas mitzvah photography, in full
What a bas mitzvah asks of a camera.
A bas mitzvah is the first simcha that belongs to her, and the photographs she keeps from it are of people — her family, her friends, the speech she practised for a month. Covering it well means working the room rather than the schedule.
The portraits
Portraits come early, while everything is still exactly as it was planned — her on her own, then with her mother, her grandmothers, her sisters, the generations together before anybody is tired. If those pictures have not been taken by the time the food comes out, they are not going to be taken.
The dvar Torah
She has been practising the speech for a month and will say it exactly once. We photograph the dvar Torah with the same seriousness we bring to a chuppah — and the moment straight after it, when she finishes and looks for her mother, which is usually the best frame of the night.
The candle lighting
A candle lighting is a list of relationships read out loud — each name called up is a photograph of who matters to her, one at a time, in hall light, happening once. It is covered from where the faces are: hers, and the person walking up.
Her friends
The room is full of girls who have known each other since playgroup, and they are the pictures she will want at twenty-five — photographed as individuals and small knots of friends, not as one wide shot of a table. Then the dancing, once the self-consciousness wears off.
Photography and film, one team
CJ Studios is one in-house team for both photography and cinema — one contract, one schedule, and nobody competing for the same shot. Female coverage is available and is not treated as a special request; for many families it is simply the requirement, and it should not have to be negotiated.
Where we photograph bas mitzvahs
The studio is based in Toms River, New Jersey, twenty minutes from Lakewood, and photographs bas mitzvahs across Ocean County — Lakewood, Toms River, Jackson — as well as Brooklyn, Teaneck, Monsey, the Five Towns, and the wider tri-state area.
The date is set. Now keep it.
Tell us the date and the shul — we’ll reply within one business day.
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