A while back I participated in a giant "shoot out" - which sounds so bad if you aren't fluent in photo lingo. Basically a bunch of us from one of my photography groups go together and planned an epic styled shoot night - where you could go and photograph whatever your niche was. We planned the event at Jordanelle State Park and had a sign in table with name tags and the whole shabang. So many photographers in one area! It was awesome. Somehow I ended up being the captain of the "family photo" shoot area and was put in contact with the Cushing family. I stayed there most of the night introducing them to fellow photographers and vice versa. They were such a dream to photograph. Having such a laid back setting made it easy to experiment and try new prompts and poses that I wanted. Not to mention it was so awesome to learn from my fellow photogs. By the end of the night I had exhausted my stash of smarties and had filled my memory card. I loved having the freedom to create and the Cushing family was the perfect muse.