A farm offers many different awesome backdrops for portraits of couples and families. So needless to say, when I made the 45 minute drive from my home and the controllable light confines of the studio to the 150 acre McKnight family farm in Uxbridge, I was looking forward to the change of scenery.

We first set up shop in the barn. I brought along two strobes to set up in the barn for proper lighting. We started with a shot of the entire family.

And then took one of the grandparents with their grandchildren.

And one of the grandchildren and their parents.

We were going to continue on with more pictures in the barn, but by this time it was already late afternoon and natural light was quickly fading. So we thought we better take the pictures we wanted outside before it was too late and return to the barn later to take the rest of the pictures of the couples.

We ventured down the long driveway to the entrance and took a picture of the matriarch and patriarch with their children around the rock bearing their family name.

Staying in the lane-way we set up some bales of hay for another group shot.

For the final groups shot we brought in the big guns—a massive combine around which everyone gathered.

With the group shots done we started taking pictures of the couples.

We started this portion of the session in the long driveway, which, lined with maples looked brilliant in the golden light of the setting sun.

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Not to be outdone by the couples, we even took one of the grandkids, being well, kids.

An open field of green grass served as a breathtaking back drop.

After using the massive combine, we thought we’d use some more rudimentary farm staples as props—wagons in red and green.

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We just didn’t feel quite right leaving out the Outlander ATV.

Satisfied with the outdoor shots, we returned to the barn to take the rest of the pictures with the haymow in the background.

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Farmland has so much to offer. It is there that the food we eat is raised and grown. But I saw this farm as more than that. I saw it as a place of rich history, one with many memories and stories of the past and many more to come. I saw it as a place where families are raised. I saw it as a place where skills are passed down from one generation to the next. But more than anything, as a photographer I saw it as a background painted with a glorious palette of varying shades green, red, and brown, mixed together so masterfully—I saw it as the perfect setting for a photo shoot.