Feeling awkward whenever you are posing for pictures when you are with friends or family isn’t unheard of.

Many people aren’t as photogenic as they would want.

The pictures you post to your dating profile don’t have to constitute an awkward look at the camera, as you pray for that flash to pop and the nightmare to stop.

Forget about the concept of getting so-called nice pictures.

Too many people think that awkwardly smiling at the camera at some random location constitutes a nice picture.

On the contrary, the pictures that garner the greatest response on dating sites are the ones that show activity.

You are scuba diving somewhere.

Rock climbing.

Parasailing.

Riding a camel, horse, bull(okay, that’s a bit much).

But you get the idea.

The nice pictures that constitute awkward smiles and a lack of activity have far less of an effect on someone you hope to attract on a dating site than the pictures that are filled with activity.

Activity is how they relate to you.

When you talk about how much you love kayaking on your bio and back that up with pictures of you kayaking somewhere, it elevates your dating profile.

Pictures that illustrate what you love doing go further than pictures that show you smiling awkwardly at the camera at a random location somewhere.

The pictures you post on your dating profile showcase your life and tell a story. This has to be the goal with your pictures.

Apply your attention to activity.

For the next few weeks, do what you love doing and have friends and family take pictures of you as you are doing them.

Forget that the camera is there.

Do the activity and ignore the camera.

This is how you create authentic pictures that capture you in the moment.

Those who obsess over posing for the camera instead of doing an activity are gravely mistaken.

Someone who sees a picture of you in a kayak smiling at the camera, in lieu of kayaking, isn’t getting the impression that you love kayaking.

In that picture, you aren’t kayaking.

You aren’t making it about the activity.

You are making the picture about you.

That gives off an air of conceit and inauthenticity, and this person is swiping left on your dating profile soon after.

When your picture is about the activity, you are showing your true character and this is attractive.

Too many people post photos of themselves as the epicenter, eschewing activity.

Potential matches don’t just want to read about how you love traveling in your bio.

They want to see it in the pictures you post.

For those who don’t have that activity in common with you but are interested in it, the pictures provide an outlet for them to imagine what it would be like to do the activity with you.

For those who have that activity in common with you, seeing you involved in doing it through your pictures confirms that you are authentic, which encourages them to swipe right on your dating profile.