FAMILY & PARENTING

Dad Transforms His Family into Star Wars Characters for Epic Holiday Card

Monday, December 4, 2017

This story originally appeared on Babble and is reprinted with permission.

We're no strangers to the magic that is comes from a Josh Rossi photo shoot. We've seen the commercial photographer and dad-of-two reimagine sick kids as powerful superheroes and transport his own daughter into a scene from Beauty and the Beast. His goal is always to empower children - especially his 4-year-old daughter Nellee - to believe they can do and be anything they want to. For his newest project, Rossi recruited his entire family to pull off the ultimate Star Wars holiday card - and it's nothing short of incredible.

Image source: Josh Rossi

Like the rest of us, Rossi says he is "obsessed" with Star Wars. With The Last Jedi coming on December 15, it makes sense that Rossi would choose the film to be the focus of the family's photo shoot.

The photos feature Rossi as Jedi Master Luke, his wife Roxana as General Leia, his daughter Nellee as Rey, and his 1-year-old son Josh Jr. as Kylo Ren.

Image source: Josh Rossi

Image source: Josh Rossi

We can't get enough of the incredible costumes - they look just like the ones seen on Mark Hamill and Adam Driver in The Last Jedi posters. The Rossi's have professional costume designer Julie Whiteley to thank for their Star Wars looks. The generous designer donated the costumes to Rossi, as she creates all of the costumes for his photo shoots by hand.

Image source: Josh Rossi

The shoot was special for the whole family, as it was Josh Jr's first time participating. While he represents the evil Kylo Ren, we have to admit he looks pretty cute wielding that red lightsaber.

"[Josh Jr. is] a little hellion that doesn't sleep," Rossi explained of his casting choice to StarWars.com. "He was having the most issues because he can barely walk ... It's pretty insane working with kids but we somehow make it work. Photoshop is my friend."

Image source: Josh Rossi

Nellee, who is now a modeling pro after being the focus of so many of her dad's photo shoots, was born to be Rey. Rossi told Babble that he always wants to provide smart, powerful women for his daughter to look up to - and who better than the fierce, utterly unstoppable Rey? Rossi is even working on putting all of his photo shoots into a book, so that little girls everywhere can be inspired by Nellee and the strong female characters she has helped bring to life.

Image source: Josh Rossi

After the shoot was complete, Rossi spent two weeks editing and agonizing over all the details of the photos - making sure everything was perfect and as close to the originals as possible.

Image source: Josh Rossi

Perhaps the best part of the whole project is that while Roxana knew the shoot was happening (she has a starring role after all), she didn't know what the photos were actually being used for. That Rossi was turning the photos into the family's annual holiday card was a complete surprise to his wife.

But considering how spectacular the results were, we bet Roxana was more than thrilled.