Five final days in Portland. Abby is working on some new cookie recipes, got to hang out with some good friends one last time, and my sister flies in tomorrow morning to join us on the drive back. We got a little bit of snow today but nothing really sticking. I keep checking the weather in different cities along the trip to see how things are looking. Hopefully the weather is kind and we are able to have a calm trip. This is the first time that I have done a move and allowed myself a little time before and after the move. It has always been the last day of work, then the following day you are headed to the next destination. I can’t tell you how much stress that relieves. Just giving yourself that little bit of breathing room is a huge help and I strongly suggest it if you are able.

The shots in the blog today are from some cookies Abby is recipe testing. When everything is fine tuned she will share the recipe in a post, but for now I just wanted to show some of the photos. I have been shooting with flash pretty much non stop recently so it was nice to have some natural daylight to work with. One of the reasons I am pushing to get better at flash is because I can use it no matter what my setting is. I might have a shoot at night, somewhere without windows, in a dungeon, who knows. “James is using flash, he rolled a 20! Critical hit!” Knowing how to use flash properly can give you a huge advantage with your photography. I am always moving it around, changing settings and moving bounce cards. I am pretty happy with my set up right now, but I know eventually I will try something new and realize it can be so much better.

To be honest it’s a lot like this move. Yeah my settings are nice and I like how they look because I am comfortable with it and it works for what I need. However if you get stuck in that comfort too long you can never reach new levels. Being uncomfortable can be a great thing. The natural reaction is to shy away from it and go back into routine, however if you don’t leave that comfort zone who knows what you could be missing out on. I really like how I shoot with flash right now because it looks good, but if I don’t continue to change and experiment I will never make them look great. There can always be a better option, you just have to find it.

By no means am I trying to preach here or tell anyone what to do, and I am far from the perfect person when it comes to not getting stuck in comfort. It happens to all of us, and I constantly need to check myself and remind myself to get going on things. Luckily I have an amazing girlfriend who kicks my butt into gear when I start slacking off, she also makes some pretty great pastries that I get to take photos of and get all up in her business when she’s trying to work. This week is going to a wide range of emotions and quite a bit of stress, but we have amazing friends who have helped, awesome family to join us on this long journey, and probably one too many five hour energies for the trip. I can’t risk drinking coffee on the drive, I’d probably poop my pants. On that note I’ll end the blog post. Love you guys!