Every pot has a lid – you DESERVE to find your “lobster” (as Phoebe from Friends would say).

Your future Soulmate will thank you, every, single, day.

Online Dating Photography for People Who Are Actually Ready to Meet Someone Great

Luxury Dating Profile Photos in Los Angeles, Orange County & San Diego

Okay. We need to talk about your dating profile photos.

Because if you are smart, interesting, successful, funny, accomplished, kind, sexy, weird-in-a-good-way, have traveled to 38 countries, make a killer martini, own a company, rescue senior dogs, play terrible tennis, whatever — and your dating profile is three dim selfies and a cropped photo from your cousin’s wedding in 2019…

We have a problem.

And I can fix it.

I’m Caroline White, and I’ve been a professional photographer for 21 years. I specialize in photographing real humans — men AND women — in a way that actually feels like them, only perhaps on the particularly fabulous day when the light is great and life is going their way.

I photograph online dating photos, lifestyle portraits, personal branding and headshots throughout Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, with custom, high-touch dating photography experiences starting at $2,000.

And no, this is emphatically NOT about taking six stiff “professional headshots” and putting them on Hinge.

Please don’t do that.

I Was Photographing People for Online Dating Before Dating Apps Took Over the Universe

I have a strangely long history with online dating photography.

Way back in the early days of online dating, I was one of the top photographers working with an online dating platform — long before everybody had Hinge, Bumble, Tinder and approximately 4,000 opinions about what your first profile photo should be.

Over the years I’ve also helped friends and clients around the country — and the world — completely rethink their profiles.

I’ve watched both men and women get an almost immediate increase in matches and attention after replacing mediocre photos with great ones.

Do I control the mysterious dating-app gods? Sadly no.

Can any photographer guarantee that a particular human being will swipe right? Also no.

But I have seen again and again what happens when someone’s photos finally communicate what meeting them actually feels like.

And that’s the point.

Good dating photos shouldn’t just make you look attractive.

They should make the right person curious about you.

This Is Not a $300 “Meet Me at the Park and Bring Two Shirts” Photoshoot

There are photographers who offer that. Totally fine.

That’s not what I do.

My custom online dating photography experiences start at $2,000, because we’re creating an entire visual story rather than one nice headshot.

I help you figure out what to wear, what NOT to wear, which locations make sense, what your existing profile is missing, what different photographs need to communicate and how we can create variety without making your dating profile look like you hired a photographer to manufacture an imaginary life.

Because THAT is awkward.

Maybe we start at your house in La Jolla, wander somewhere gorgeous for drinks and sunset, change clothes and create something completely different.

Maybe you’re in Rancho Santa Fe and your actual life involves horses, architecture, wine, dogs and beautiful outdoor spaces. Great. Let’s use your actual life.

Maybe you’re newly single in Del Mar, dating again after 20 years and thinking, Dear God, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.

COME TO ME. 😂

I’ve photographed people for two decades. I will not leave you standing there wondering where your hands go.

And if you’re in Coronado or Carmel Valley, we can create photographs that feel unmistakably Southern California without turning your profile into an advertisement for the San Diego Tourism Authority.

The Secret Is Personality, Personality, Personality

There are technically perfect photographs that are absolute dating-profile disasters.

Why?

Because there is nobody home.

I want spark.

I want the slightly raised eyebrow. The enormous laugh. The elegant black-tie version of you AND the person eating tacos. I want warmth. Mischief. Confidence. Intelligence. Sexiness without trying desperately to look sexy.

I want someone looking at your photographs to start imagining what spending three hours with you might actually feel like.

My regular clients have described my shoots as playful, comfortable and confidence-building, and that’s been central to my work for years. (Caroline White Photography)

That becomes especially important if you’re dating in Newport Beach or Corona del Mar, where your photographs need to communicate success without screaming LOOK AT MY WATCH.

Same thing in Laguna Beach: let’s make something beautiful without making you look like a realtor standing in front of somebody else’s infinity pool.

In Shady Canyon or Coto de Caza, we might lean more into your actual environment and lifestyle.

Your life should look good.

It just shouldn’t look fake.

Dating Again at 45, 55, 65 or 75? HELLO. I LOVE YOU ALREADY.

This is possibly one of my favorite groups to photograph.

You don’t need to look 32.

You need to look fantastic at the age you actually are.

Huge difference.

I’ve spent 21 years learning faces, bodies, angles, expressions, light, posing and the teeny tiny adjustments that can completely change a photograph.

I especially love working with people who tell me:

“I hate having my picture taken.”

Excellent.

Those are my people.

If you’re starting over in Beverly Hills, rebuilding a life in Pacific Palisades, newly single in Brentwood or finally ready to date again in Santa Monica, your photographs don’t need to apologize for your age.

You’ve accumulated an entire LIFE.

Let’s make that look hot.

Los Angeles Dating Photography Without the LA Weirdness

Well. Maybe some LA weirdness.

I came to Los Angeles originally as an actress. I worked in film, television, theater and national commercials before photography completely hijacked my life; I eventually realized that being behind the camera was where I belonged. (Caroline White Photography)

Back in my acting days, I even won Best Actress at a comedy film festival, which is perhaps not the credential one expects from one’s online dating photographer, but it explains A LOT.

I am super duper fun on shoots.

Like… aggressively not solemn.

My work and/or adventures in entertainment have also been featured or seen on CBS, NBC, Animal Planet and The Tonight Show, and my photography career has brought press including Business Insider and Metro UK, among others. My LinkedIn also documents the Business Insider and Metro UK publications and multiple Backstage Reader’s Choice awards. (LinkedIn)

But all that stuff matters less to me on your shoot than this:

Can I get YOU to forget there’s a camera there?

That’s when things get good.

I’ve photographed entrepreneurs, artists and fascinating humans from Malibu to Bel Air, from Hollywood Hills to Manhattan Beach, and around the world. I’ve photographed well-known entrepreneurs and media figures, too, but fame isn’t terribly useful when you’re standing in front of my camera.

You still need to look like yourself.

Your Dating Profile Needs More Than One Great Photograph

This is where I get a little bossy.

One gorgeous portrait + five terrible photos = five terrible photos.

We want a collection.

A close portrait where we can really see your eyes. Something full-length. Something dressed up. Something relaxed. Something with movement. Something that reveals a little bit about your life. Maybe something unexpected.

Current dating-photography specialists similarly recommend a mixture of clear portraits, full-body photographs, lifestyle images, movement and personality rather than a collection of identical headshots. (Barrio Faces)

If you’re a man who lives in Pasadena, perhaps your shoot shouldn’t pretend you’re a Malibu surfer.

If you’re a woman in Los Feliz who lives for art, restaurants, vintage clothes and her ridiculous little dog, WHY WOULD WE PHOTOGRAPH YOU ON A RANDOM BEACH?

This is why I help with locations.

And clothes.

And styling.

And all the tiny details people don’t realize matter until they see the difference.

“But Caroline, I Am Not Photogenic.”

Ohhhhhhh.

Come here.

After 21 years, I have some thoughts about this.

Most people who believe they aren’t photogenic have simply accumulated bad photographic evidence.

Bad light. Bad lens. Bad angle. Bad timing. Weird expression. Someone standing three feet away holding an iPhone approximately under their chin.

Exhibit A for the prosecution.

My job is figuring out what works for your face and personality, and then making the shoot fun enough that eventually you stop performing for me.

This is high-touch photography. We’re going to plan.

We’re going to talk.

We’re going to make a little bit of a ridiculous plan.

And then probably throw some of the plan away when we find something better.

Whether we’re shooting around La Cañada Flintridge, Palos Verdes Estates, La Jolla or Newport Beach, I don’t want the location to be the star.

You’re the star.

Sorry. You have no choice in the matter.

Does Professional Dating Photography Actually Get More Matches?

I’ve seen it happen MANY times.

I’ve helped friends from around the US and overseas change their photographs and suddenly get more matches, better attention and different responses — sometimes astonishingly quickly.

And I’m certainly not the only person seeing the relationship between stronger dating photographs and stronger profile performance. Other dating-photography companies publish similar client reports, while appropriately pointing out that photographs aren’t the only variable affecting matches. (The Match Artist)

I can’t promise you 47 soulmates by Tuesday.

That would be terrifying anyway.

What I can do is use 21 years of portrait photography, posing, marketing instinct, location scouting, styling guidance and professional people-wrangling to give you photographs designed to make a far better first impression.

Also I will probably tell you to take that shirt off.

Not THAT way.

Replace it with the other shirt.

See? This is already getting out of hand.

Luxury Online Dating Photography in Southern California

I work throughout Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, and travel frequently for clients elsewhere.

Custom online dating photography experiences begin at $2,000 and are designed for people who want substantially more than a handful of profile pictures.

They’re for someone ready to say:

This is my life. This is my face. This is my personality. This is who I am now. And I would actually really like to meet somebody wonderful.

Maybe you’ve been divorced.

Maybe you’ve been widowed.

Maybe you spent the last decade building your company.

Maybe you’re 52 and have suddenly realized that the last photograph you genuinely love of yourself was taken in 2014.

Maybe you’re 68 and having more fun than you did at 38.

Maybe you’re 35 and simply refuse to spend another year being represented on Bumble by a bathroom selfie.

Whatever brought you here…

Let’s make you look like somebody you’d want to meet.

Actually, no.

Let’s make you look like you.

That’s way better.

Online dating photography and luxury dating profile photos available throughout Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Bel Air, Pasadena, Los Feliz, Palos Verdes, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Shady Canyon, Coto de Caza, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Coronado and Carmel Valley. Custom photography experiences start at $2,000.

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