About Me
A.K.A How getting stood up by a hot date in Latvia turned me from a fat dude who couldn’t get a match to an in demand dating profile photographer
Act I: The Setup
Hi, I’m Joe.
And I help men get more matches, and get into the relationships of their dreams by taking eye-catching dating profile photos that capture women’s attention.
To date, I’ve helped well over 160 guys level up their dating lives.
Whether that was by helping them get more hookups, or by helping them meet their long term girlfriends and wives.
I’ve been in the online dating game a loooong time, but I wasn’t always as “good” as I am at the online dating game. In fact, honestly speaking when I started, I absolutely sucked at first.
And in order to explain how I got here, we have to go back to where it all began.
Now, all superheroes have a backstory, and I’m not an exception.
But let’s be clear, I was never a billionaire orphan.
I didn’t come from an exploding planet.
And I wasn’t bitten by a radioactive camera to give me my smooth online dating photo skills.
Naw, my story is way more humble than that.
In my early 20s, I was fat, and miserable.
I couldn’t get a date to save my life, and “matches” were some mythical thing that only happened to the lucky few the ladies found attractive on Tinder.
I spent so much time swiping for women, my thumb got enough of a workout to lift a large dumb bell.And what did all that work get me?
Nothing.
I was constantly shunned by the women I wanted to date. Something about me on the dating apps made me look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame in their eyes.
In other words, I was what most guys would call, “a loser”
But one situation changed everything…
There comes a time when every man must answer the call of adventure and leave home.
My time came in my mid-20s, and the call came in the form of an invitation from a business mentor of mine to a retreat in Lithuania.
After the event, I thought I’d visit nearby Latvia and try my luck with the locals.
I mean, think about it.
Naturally, I wanted some action, a little fun. And let me tell ya, traveling in a foreign land makes you “the mysterious foreigner”.
Girls will match with you, not because you’re hot… but because you’re different and they’re curious.
While traveling I swiped on all the dating apps you could think of.
Tinder, Bumble, some weird foreign only dating app you’ve never heard about… And I matched with “foreigner hunter” types who wanted to enjoy some “exotic meat”.
I would get a handful of matches, I’d even get some… but only because I was “the exotic, mysterious American guy” and an easy way for them to check a foreigner from their bucket lists. And even then most of them still flaked on me.
The ones I exchanged numbers with?
They ended up not showing up to the date. I ended up coming up with a “stood up” routine to avoid making an obvious walk of shame when the girl never showed up.
I’ve been “left on read” more times than I can count. And I know for sure it’s not because I somehow left them speechless either.
But I weathered the storm.
I knew my day would come, and boy did it come at me hard.
Act II: The Latvia Fiasco
One particular day, I matched with a drop dead gorgeous Latvian girl.
I can’t tell you how excited I was for our date.
She was HOT, and after spending most of my time settling with average girls, this mysterious stranger had my heart racing.
I steeled my nerves.
Readied myself for the date… went to the casual little cafe we were supposed to meet.
And I wanted her.
And I waited
And waited.
And waited.
Then, my mind started racing.
“What’s her problem?
Was it something I did?
Was it something I said?”
Angery, and confused, I sent her a few bitter texts… and tried calling a few too many times.
I shuffled my feet back to my hostel bunk bed, curled into a ball and cried myself to sleep.
This was my life.
.And I was fucking sick of it.
THIS was the last straw.
I knew something had to change, and that something was me.
The next day I woke up and decided something had to be done.
I told myself I was going to figure out what women really wanted, or die trying (thankfully as you can see, I’m still alive).
I hated being ignored.
I hated being flaked on.
And I had enough of being overlooked.
I wanted to be noticed too. I wanted to be with the girls I was attracted to.
And so, my journey to enlightenment began.
The first thing I would work on, was my photos.
Act III: Cracking the code
I realized one of the reasons the girls flaked on me was my first impression.
They hadn’t met me in person.
And the only impression they had of me was the photos they saw. So by my logic, if I could improve my first impression, maybe they’d want to meet up with me.
So, I went out with the other guys from the hostel and had them take photos of me with my crappy cell phone.
Were they good?
… Well, they were “good enough” when you consider the phone had a cracked screen so all my photos came out looking like they were smeared in Vaseline.
And let’s not ignore the fact that while women are somehow born able to take darn good photos with a 5 year old camera phone… Most men suck at taking a half decent picture even with the best gear. But we tried.
I picked my favorite ones (well, at least the ones that showed my “good side”).
I agonized over which photos to post, and which photos to bin.
And to my utter shock… I started getting matches!
I couldn’t believe it!
That’s what was missing.
The photos!
That golden first impression!
Thanks to these photos I ended up dating a gorgeous woman for the rest of my time in Latvia. She gave me the warmth of an angel, the companionship of a friend… and sex so good, I can’t comment on it while keeping this page PG-13.
But…
What if this was a fluke?
There was only one way to find out…
Act IV: The Paparazzi Factor
(cool name I know)
After my adventure in Latvia, I had to return to the USA to start my new life.
It hurt parting ways with my Latvian girl. But as a man, I had to answer the call of adventure, and I knew where the next step in my life was.
I wanted to replicate the results I had in Latvia, but there was a problem:
In the United States, I was no longer the mysterious foreigner. I was just a normal guy, meaning I had absolutely no advantage. Whatever I tried had to work despite me being “just a normal guy”.
I had a faint idea of what goes into taking a good dating photo.
But that’s all I had. An Idea. So I decided to start taking things seriously.
I hit the gym.
Began to eat right, and started testing what works when it comes to taking dating photos.
I got myself a professional camera, taught myself how to edit… and teamed up with a friend on the same path to enlightenment. That’s him, in the photo next to me, he’s been one of my earliest and most consistent clients once I turned this into a full time business.
Like a pair of teenage girls on an outing, we took thousands of dating profile photos of each other (though let’s be real, even that number doesn’t match just how many pictures women take of each other).
I tested everything.
“Do these clothes look good?”
“Does doing this in my photo look manly?”
“Is my location a turn off?”
“Do I have to pose in a certain way to attract women”?
If you can think of it, I tested it.
I even considered testing to see the difference in matches I would get between holding a chihuahua and a poodle… okay, okay, that last one’s a joke).
Week after week, I tested every photo and took notes. I kept track of what worked and what didn’t.
Some pictures were winners. Some were losers. But each failure brought me closer to the answer.
Everything I learned became what I now call the paparazzi factor, due to how I realized that the more natural my pictures looked, the more attracted women were.
All my testing gave me a good understanding of what photos, angles, compositions and frames caught women’s eyes.
And guess what?
I started going on more dates!
Act V: The universal dating photo language to more matches, and more dates (even I was shocked)
But I wasn’t the only one who noticed my newfound success with the ladies.
A few of my friends saw the results I was getting… and asked for my help.
At first, I was a bit surprised.
Then I remembered the journey I took to get here, and realized what I knew about dating profile photography was NOT common knowledge.
So I accepted their requests.
What better time to see if my methodology would work on someone else? After all, my success could just be a fluke and this stuff might have been working because of my dashing good looks.
I took dating profile photos of my friends, using everything I learned.
And much to my surprise…
It worked for them as well!
I was shocked by how well the paparazzi factor translated to other men, in different age groups, with completely different lifestyles, interests and of completely different races.
With the paparazzi factor, I discovered the universal language of masculine dating profile photography
My friends wouldn’t stop telling me how many matches they were getting.
To me, I just helped them get more dates.
To them, I helped them overcome a huge personal hurdle they had… and helped them level up their dating game!
Act VI: "If you're good at something, don't do it for free"
~The Joker
One day, a single question changed everything.
A guy came up to me when we were taking photos and asked:
“How much do you charge?
I’m looking to get more matches on Tinder, Bumble and Hinge too!”
That’s the moment I realized men were willing to pay to get this kind of help.
That’s the moment I realized, I could turn this into a business and help other men on the same journey I took.
I’ve been where they are.
I’ve felt the loneliness.
I’ve dealt with the constant rejection.
And…
I could take their dating profile photos, and help them start matching with, and dating the women they’re attracted to
Since then, I’ve helped over 160 guys, in 40+ cities around the world.
Proving just how universally applicable the paparazzi factor is.
And these guys couldn’t be happier after working with me.
You can see what they have to say about my team and I over here.
And that, my friend, is how Dating Unchained was born.
That was my superhero backstory.
Over time.. word of my results spread like a wildfire. I got so many inquiries, I started charging for my online dating photography services.
I’m grateful to be able to help guys who are in the same rut I was in.
Angry…
Lonely…
Confused…
Wondering why girls flake on them…
Or worse, ignore them.
It pushes me to get up in the morning, knowing I’m helping more men build the life they love.
I get to be the bridge between where men are, and where they want to be.
And wouldn’t have it any other way.
And so, from me to you…
You may have been born too late to explore the earth.
And you have been born too soon to explore the stars.
But you were born just in time to experience a dating unchained photoshoot
Joe knows how to take a modeling novice and produce an entire portfolio of incredible pictures that will make a huge difference in your online dating success. Game changer, and worth every penny. Thanks Joe!
Take back control of your dating life.
Lean on my experience in the trenches of online dating. A simple photoshoot can mean the difference between them swiping left or right.
