So it's been a year...

Holy moly! So I knew that I was somewhat remiss in updating my blog, I had no idea it’s been almost A YEAR since I’ve done it! But the good news is that part of the reason for that is that I’ve been crazy busy! Shooting a ton, and having acquired part of another business, things have been rolling along! So there may be, hopefully, a bunch of new stuff to look at in the next little while, to catch up a little!

One thing I was planning on doing this year (I’d even put a reminder in my calendar in February of last year!) was a fun shoot for those who are single and looking to mingle. Having been in the online dating scene back in the day, I remember that there were a lot of people who had many photos that… let’s just say, may not have shown them in the best light? Literally, poor lighting that caused racoon eyes, or backlighting where you couldn’t really see the face at all, or just unflattering. I have met many people who are categorically and classically attractive who can look like Frankenstein’s monster under the right lighting conditions. This is not to just throw shade on these people, online dating can be tough. You’re opening yourself up, and being vulnerable and hoping to meet someone who aligns with your core values and beliefs, and hopefully also happens to find you attractive. Or, maybe you’re just looking to hook up, which is ok too (so long as you’re honest about it!)

At any rate, I’ve had the odd person come to me specifically for images to use for online dating purposes. In this particular case, Alvil was not actually looking for that, but I had put the word out on social media that I wanted a volunteer to be a “guinea pig” of sorts, to model for me and he was welcome to use the images for online dating, or not, should he choose to do so.

We set up at the studio to shoot some images that were not too serious, but showed some personality and have some fun. A quick shoot, it only took about 20 minutes but Alvil leaned into the process, took my suggestions, let go and (I dare say) had fun himself while we were at it. It’s possibly helpful that having been in that world myself, and remembering my experiences, I tended to be more drawn to profiles that showed someone who clearly didn’t take themselves too seriously, who had interests, and could let go and have fun.

As it happened, I actually didn’t have time to promote a bigger shoot for this, and I don’t actually know if he used the photos himself, but he was a good sport about it and we’d had a good time so it wasn’t time wasted.

If you know someone who had maybe been struggling themselves in the online dating jungle, maybe you could kindly suggest that some professional photos, whether taken by myself or another photographer, might help them out a little bit. Or at the very least, maybe it will be something they can look back, hopefully in an amusing way, in the future with a bit of a smile and say “that was fun. I’m glad I did that.”