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I'm Shannon — a Twin Cities photographer and former single mom who found confidence (and connection) through updating her dating photos in her 40s.

This blog is for people ready to show up differently — daters, creatives, career-changers, and anyone in a season of visibility. Whether you're stepping into a new chapter or finally ready to be seen clearly — by people and by search — this space is for you.

From dating-app photo strategy and personal branding tips to interviews, confidence-building tools, and now visibility through AI discovery, this is where your story starts showing up.

Confidence-Driven Photography & Visibility Tips for Daters, Creatives + Career Shifts

Welcome to the blog

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A Magazine Cover: COVER BOY This past August I found out that an image of mine that I took of my boy won the Make it Minnesota Instagram photo contest sponsored by The Works Museum in Bloomington, MN!! 🙂  As part of my win I not only received a family membership to the Museum, my […]

Minnesota Discovery

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PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON: DAY 2 WITH MY SON by: Shannon Kathleen Photography Today marked the 2nd day of Art Class, Homeschooling Style.  This student of mine is incredibly eager to learn!!  This eagerness of his is more soul filling than I could ever imagine! We hopped in the car with our cameras and drove down to […]

Photography Lesson: Day 2

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A Life Change into the World of Homeschooling September 18th marked Camden’s 1st day of the 7th grade … Home school style 📚 ❤️ When asked what he thought of his 1st day he said, “It was awesome!”A few months ago we decided to embark in to the world of homeschooling. There are many reasons, […]

A LIFE CHANGE

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Deep Thoughts By: Shannon Kathleen Photography “Does our purpose on Earth directly link to the people whom we end up meeting? Are our relationships and experiences actually the required dots that connect and then lead us to our ultimate destinies?” — Jennifer Elisabeth The above quote offers some great questions to ponder … I believe […]

FINDING OUR ULTIMATE DESTINY

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The Cycle Of Success   “Success works as a cycle – growth and contraction, balancing and unbalancing – all while you’re encountering hurdles that get higher and higher over time.” — Julien Smith We can all feel that growth and contraction … that balancing and unbalancing no matter what we do in life and/or work.  […]

Reach For The Sky

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BOUTIQUE WEDDING ELOPEMENT PASSION . ELEGANCE . CREATIVITY WHY HAVE AN ELOPEMENT? It’s not uncommon for weddings to take on a life of their own, morphing into something bigger, more stressful, and more expensive than you ever imagined, or particularly wanted! Not to mention the endless (well meaning) advice, expectations, and pressure from friends and […]

Now Booking Wedding Elopements

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My Human Of The Wild Make It Minnesota Magazine is a local publication. It is created to share the stories of makers and innovators that span the great northern state. As stated in the magazine, “They are here to build a timeless collection of tales from each region across the state of MN. They aim […]

Make It Minnesota

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A COLLABORATIVE LIFESTYLE PHOTO SHOOT BY SHANNON KATHLEEN PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURING mary.so.contrary 3 weeks ago I received a private message on Instagram from a model beauty named Mary asking me if I was available that day for a collaborative lifestyle photo session. She just happened to be in the area visiting from Arizona.  I inquired with […]

A MODEL BEAUTY

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Dear upcoming graduates: As you prepare to launch into a new world of independence after high school, I want you to know that no matter your circumstances in life – where you live, the family you were born into, what happened to you as a young child that was beyond your control – NOW is […]

THE NEXT CHAPTER | YOUR SENIOR YEAR

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TO LEAD PEOPLE, WALK BESIDE THEM… I have been asked “How do you achieve a successful couples session? How do you get them to feel comfortable and look comfortable in front of the camera?” My answer is simple … I walk beside them. Whether it is them leading me or me leading them … I […]

Photographing Couples

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Shoot and Share Contest Results In January I entered a HUGE (and free) photo contest for the 1st time.  This contest is called Shoot and Share. As a results of entering this contest, it consumed my life for the entire month of February 😉 There were 332,768 entries total entered into 25 categories and over […]

PHOTO CONTEST RESULTS

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The Creative Self-Portrait Experience: A way to explore yourself in every possible situation, to stimulate the creative process, to improve self-knowledge and self-esteem, thus empowering yourself. Along my photography journey I have discovered how passionate I am about female portraiture and creative self-portraits.  For many of us, we can feel overwhelmed by orders as to […]

Creative Self-Portraits (+ a freebie!)