I have been doing family shoots for a little while now and I’m always looking for ways to be more creative or make the shoot tell a more personal story of each family. When Sarah Morabito inquired about using their old Land Cruiser, well…it was an immediate yes from me.

It was October here in the mid-atlantic and we had a perfect fall day for the shoot. I met the family at a preserve near their house in West Chester in the middle of golden hour. It was perfect because we could have some beautifully lit photos in nature, while also doing a variety of more personalized shots with their car too.

My vision for this shoot, since there were four kids was also to simply document the nature of childhood. It’s free and messy and fun all at the same time, so at one point I asked the kids to pick up a fun prop provided by mother nature; milkweed seeds. They are the softest, fluffiest things you’ll ever touch, similar to a bunny’s fur. I had spotted the pods, filled with them in the field we were in. They of course started throwing them in the air and at each other, so it made for some great candids. How fun!

The photos with the Land Cruiser are my favorite family photos I’ve taken by far. It reminds me of The Brady Bunch, a show I used to watch as a kid. It was a sitcom about a blended family that had 6 kids from a widowed father who has three sons, marrying a woman with three daughters. They had an old station wagon on the show, and it was an iconic symbol as the show went on and got really popular.

I hope to continue to photograph families in their own uniqueness, and preach the value in memory from photographs. One day I’m sure they will bring out these photos and go- remember that old Land Cruiser we once had? That’s what photographs are for after all right…to help us remember?