I love tiny towns. Whether they are tiny mountain towns, tiny East coast towns, tiny West cost towns, or tiny Midwest towns. Tiny towns, from anywhere, are my favorite. Leadville is a tiny mountain town and it holds up to the tiny mountain town persona; quaint, friendly, local finds, and general good fun.

Leadville was our second stop during my Colorado adventures. And our first stop in Leadville was lunch, which I was super happy about. I'm always happy when food is involved, haha! After I inhaled my food, which was delicious, we headed out to walk the town. Because Leadville was the cutest little town ever and kept seeing the perfect places to snap portraits. I love snapping portraits... portraits was the reason I fell in love with photography. As we walked around Leadville I kept stopping and asking someone if they would let me take their picture... "Hey, will you stand right here?" ..."Hey, will you sit right here?" Thankfully everyone always said yes. :)

TIPS FOR PORTRAITS ON THE GO

LOOK FOR FRAMING: One thing I'm always drawn too when I'm on the go, especially when I'm thinking about portraits, is framing. I'm always looking for framing. When I look for framing I'm looking for structures that frame my subject. This could be door frames, alley gates, tree canopy's, anything. The picture below started out framed. I was initially drawn to the doors and the framing of the doors, so I sat Beth within the framing. Once in post processing, I decided I liked the composition a little tighter.

LOOK FOR UNIQUE BACKGROUNDS: One of the places we walked through during our time in Leadville was an antique mall. Guys, Tyler and I love antique malls. We love finding vintage items and unique decor pieces. Anyways, while we were walking through this antique mall I saw the perfect space for a photo. It was a rectangular room, so it provided a great u-shape similar to framing. Plus, all the vintage items created a really unique background.

LOOK FOR UNIQUE LIGHTING: This one goes with the one above. The same unique background had great unique lighting. There was a window letting in a perfect amount of light. It was the light that I was initially drawn too.

LOOK FOR DEPTH & LAYERS: Meg's photo above was inspired by depth and layers. As we were walking by I noticed the brick and iron railing, which I loved, but to take the photo straight on wasn't the greatest. What was behind the railing wasn't very visually appealing. I knew that I could create a more dynamic photo if I took the photo looking down the sidewalk, which created lots of depth and layers. The great thing about Meg's photo is that you get a better sense of a story.

Featured Items: (Me) Between Two Pines Pullover c/o || (Me) Classic Mojo Jeggings c/o || (Beth) Punch Vintage Leather Cuff c/o || (Beth) Natalie Borton Camille Necklace c/o || (Beth) Be Strong Boot c/o || (Meg) Between Two Pines Pullover c/o || (Amy) On My Radar Demin Jacket c/o

Guys, I'm so thankful for friends that let me snap their photos. I could take pictures all day everyday. We had so much fun walking around Leadville; eating good food, spending time together, laughing, window shopping, and stopping for coffee... even though I don't drink coffee, ha! :) xoxo. Samantha

P.S. Thank you to Beth of Oak + Oats for snapping these great photos of me and A Love Photography for snapping that cute one of the three of us!

Keep Reading...