Dallas-Based Dating App Specialists Are Helping Men Toss the Fish Photos

“He’s cuter in person.” It’s a line we’ve all heard before in defense of a blurry, back-lit picture of a guy holding an upside-down fish as he’s the subject of someone’s latest talking phase. It was the best option he had on his dating profile, and empathetic friends, having uttered the same words before, extend the benefit of the doubt.

It’s true, statistically speaking, that men have a harder go on dating apps. It’s also true that men have fewer pictures of themselves than women. Correlation does not equal causation in statistics, but we’re not statisticians, so we’ll call that a direct relationship. And the dating app specialists behind Dallas-based company The Match Artist agree. 

“Dating apps are confusing and [daters] don’t know what they’re doing wrong,” Dani Geary, dating coach at The Match Artist, tells the Observer. “No matter whether we talk to someone who is a Fortune 500 founder or it’s someone that’s an Uber driver.” 

The Match Artist, founded by Shane White and Nick Friesen around 2018, was the result of an experiment between the two friends. White was single and not having much luck on dating apps. Friesen, a professional wedding photographer, was workshopping how to teach grooms to smize in pictures on their big day. Friesen asked if he could test it out on White, and soon enough, the pictures were loaded onto the latter’s dating profile and the results spoke for themselves — White is now married to a woman he met because of the pictures. The two realized there was likely a market of men facing the same conundrum: a lack of quality pictures prevented dating app algorithms from helping them meet the one. 

The Match Artist also serves women, which is good news for one staff writer at the Observer whose cheeky captions and suggestive one-liners hidden in their dating columns have gotten them no closer to finding their Big. However, men make up 80% of their clientele. 

Now, The Match Artist has photographers spread around the country offering personalized photoshoots to help men put their best foot forward. Dating coach Geary joined as a liaison, offering ongoing assistance and support to clients as they navigate the ever-changing world of online dating. 

The shoots follow a basic formula so that clients have every kind of picture you could need for a dating profile: a selfie, a close-up smile, and hobby and activity shots, to name a few. An extensive questionnaire beforehand helps with planning, or what we in media call “creative direction.” The sessions take several hours, and a seasoned photographer helps with posing, wardrobing, the works. Services start around $3,000 but can go up based on needs.

“Men are very rarely pampered because it’s not socially normal to do so,” Geary says. “[They] get 4 to 5 hours where it’s all about [them]. It’s all about you and someone on your side, on your team, making sure you look good. That’s something that really is important for men to experience.”

Geary steps in to offer her two cents on which pictures (of the hundreds) are likely to work the best, and how to answer prompts in engaging ways. She requires the first picture to be a solo smiling shot. It increases right swipes by 14%. And while you’re at it, take down the gym picture and swap it for something outdoorsy; she says they’re 20% more effective. 

The team has had to re-strategize as algorithms change. What worked in 2020 doesn’t work in 2026. High-res studio shoots don’t resonate as much as a candid picture that could have been snapped by a talented iPhone photographer, says Friesen. 

“We are always pivoting with the times to get those photos that will consistently work on the dating apps,” he says.

After many years, the team has dozens of success stories and lots of wedding gifts to buy. While match coaching seems like a last-resort option for men who you wouldn’t want anyway, Geary says that’s really not the case. 

“What we noticed is 95% of our clients, they don’t have a value problem,” she says. “They’re interesting, they have hobbies, they understand what they’re looking for in a partner, they’re intentional about dating and they’re looking for someone that can actually show up for a date. They have a value communication problem. So it’s not that they lack value, they lack that ability to communicate it effectively.”

Geary said she’s never had a client she couldn’t work with. Yes, some men have unrealistic expectations at first, but she says abandoning hope in them would mean abandoning hope in love. 

“I don’t lie to the men we work with,” she says about encountering less-than-sweet clients. “I will meet them where they are, but I don’t lie because that’s not productive in growing their skills. No one’s ever broken, you just have to refine the skills you have.” 

We’re not hating if someone puts a little more effort into their profile. In fact, we’re grateful to have a good picture we can send to the group that won’t immediately be hit with the dreaded “girl.”