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Style, Travel, Lifestyle, Photography Samantha Kakac Style, Travel, Lifestyle, Photography Samantha Kakac

LEADVILLE, CO + TIPS FOR PORTRAITS ON THE GO

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! 


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Style, Travel Samantha Kakac Style, Travel Samantha Kakac

UP, UP, AND AWAY

LOCATION: Twin Lakes, CO

OUTFIT DETAILS: Better With You Floral Hoodie (c/o) || Adidas Performer Mid-Rise || Under Armour Tank || New Balance 574 Cruisin  ||  North Face Triclimate Rain Jacket || Lowepro Photo Hatchback

The weekend before last I was in beautiful Colorado and I had the very best time! I flew out for the weekend and spent time with some of the best friends ever. I had every intention last week to start sharing about some of our amazing experiencing, but when I returned I found out our car had caught fire, bah! Tyler waited to tell me until I got back, which I was so grateful for. So... instead of going through and editing photos we went to the mechanic, found out our car was dead, (ha!) and then made plans for our next car, whew. 

Last week was way busier then I expected and a little more stressful then I hoped, whew. On a lighter note, we figured out all of our car stuff and Jesus provided a great car that we should have by the end of the week. 

Okay, back to Colorado, ha! I spent four fun filled days with three amazing women. It was one of those experiences that you feel instantly yourself. One of my favorite things was hanging out with four other bloggers/photographers and knowing that we all understand all the blogging/photographing things. :) Our first stop for the weekend was Twin Lakes; it was absolutely beautiful and cold, haha. One thing I couldn't wait for was taking pictures of all the beautiful mountains. It was the absolute best hiking around with Beth,  Meg, and Amy and experiencing such beauty. 

I was freezing in these photos, but had the very best time, haha! I can't wait to share more and visit again! I want to give a shout out to Beth of Oak + Oats for snapping all these great photos of me, she's such a great photographer! xoxo. Samantha


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Travel, Lifestyle Samantha Kakac Travel, Lifestyle Samantha Kakac

A WEEKEND IN NYC

Hello friends! Man, last week was a whirl wind. We were out of town for Memorial Day weekend, we came back on Tuesday, I worked my part time job Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday was all about catch up, whew!

But let's talk about the fun stuff. Tyler and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last week and we decided to stay in New York City to celebrate. Small fun fact, our first 6 months living in New York we lived in the Hyatt House, which was provided as corporate housing. During that time we racked up a ton of Hyatt points. Those points were going to expire at the end of this year so we decided to use them and stay at Hyatt Time Square. This was HUGE, because without our Hyatt points we would have never been able to stay there, it was an amazing blessing. 

We planned three fun filled days exploring the city. Hyatt Time Square has a ... High Top Bar... Bar 54 ... I can't remember what it was called, ha! But we ate there our first evening. The draw to Bar 54 is that you are able to look over the city from the 54th floor of the Hyatt. It was so cool. On Sunday we took our first subway. We had been to the city a few times prior to this, but mostly walked. This time around we finally figured out the subway, woot! We rented a tandem bike and biked around Central Park and we also checked out the Central Park Zoo. Taking a tandem bike around Central Park was the coolest thing ever! 

On Monday we went on a guided tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The ferry rides were the coolest and my favorite part of the tours was learning about all the history. There was so much about the Statue of Liberty that I didn't know and the same about Ellis Island too. We had the best tour guide ever, he was super informed... it was so nice to have a tour guide. Now if any one comes to visit us we can take them to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and actually now what to do, ha! :) 

One thing that I learned about being in New York City is that I tire quickly, ha! Tyler probably could have went all day for all three days, but I needed to head back to our hotel most days to rest, whew. All in all we had an amazing time! I can't wait for more adventures! How was your Memorial Day weekend? Do you have any summer plans? xoxo. Samantha 

P.S. Stop by on Monday for, "How to create a seamless photo background." I can't wait to share!


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Travel, Lifestyle Samantha Kakac Travel, Lifestyle Samantha Kakac

A MINI TOUR GUIDE TO MYSTIC

Before Tyler and I moved to the East Coast we started researching all the lovely places we could go. If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure that Tyler stumbled onto to Mystic during our research and reminded me of the movie Mystic Pizza. From that moment I knew we just had to go. The first time we headed to Mystic was when Meg visited. We had no idea what to expect, except for the fact that we would be eating at Mystic Pizza. After that visit, it turned out to be one of our favorite places. Often times when we chat about taking a day trip or a weekend away we think of Mystic, and that is where we headed for Tyler's birthday this year.

Mystic is a small little seaport town, full of charm and small town appeal. If you're looking for something big city, Mystic probably isn't for you. But if you love a small town feel Mystic will be right up your alley. 

DOWNTOWN MYSTIC

Downtown Mystic is always our first stop... that is where Mystic Pizza is. Mystic is only about 2 hours away, so we usually plan to make it there by lunch and eat. Of course the pizza is good, but the fried pickles are my favorite and we've ordered them both times we were there. When ordering pizza we would highly recommend the house special. After Mystic Pizza, you can head to Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream Cafe. The cafe sits right at the drawbridge and you can walk out onto the side deck and look out over the water.

MYSTIC AQUARIUM

Because Mystic is small it's quite easy to get around, something Tyler and I both appreciate. Mystic Aquarium is only about 10 minutes from downtown Mystic. Our visit to the aquarium was just a few weeks ago, so there was plenty of snow still on the ground and I'm assuming because it was cold the aquarium wasn't to busy, which was nice. It was lovely experiencing the aquarium in the winter with snow and it's easy to see and experience all the marine life.

OLDE MISTICK VILLAGE

I couldn't tell you why the town is spelled Mystic and the village is spelled Mistick, but it's lovely either way. Remember when I said that things are really close together? Well, Mistick Village is within walking distance of the aquarium. After our aquarium visit we asked someone in the gift shop where Mistick Village was and to our surprise it was right across the street. We loved experiencing the village in winter because it was rather quiet. The village is full of lots of different shops; toy shops, a Christmas shop, a honey shop, a chocolate shop and many more. It reminded us a little bit of Silver Dollar City (any mid-westerners out there know Silver Dollar City?)  The chocolate shop was one of our first stops... because I want to eat all the chocolate. ;)

Friends, there is totally way more things to do in Mystic, but we've only ever visited during winter months. Every time we are there we see something else we want to check out and experience. I sure hope I'll have another travel guide full of summer experience too. Have you ever been to Mystic? Where are some of your favorite places to visit on the East Coast? xoxo. Samantha

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