![Saskia Nelson](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/women/2016/06/28/saskia-nelson_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqz_b3L4TXopcXGzzSZOm7yW15XIqWJRW0twrdmnWoYCI.jpg?imwidth=680)
One Day: 'I turned my bad online dates into a business'
![Saskia Nelson](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/women/2016/06/28/saskia-nelson_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqz_b3L4TXopcXGzzSZOm7yW15XIqWJRW0twrdmnWoYCI.jpg?imwidth=680)
It’s Sunday lunchtime and I’m standing outside Waterloo station waiting to meet my date – a David Beckham lookalike I met online. I’m excited. In his pictures, he has a strong jawline, well-styled brown hair and he looks tall and confident. Just my type.
I notice an exhausted-looking man shuffling towards me – he’s short with messy hair and looks washed out. He’s nothing like the Beckham-alike, so I don’t pay him much attention.
But he approaches me. ‘Hi Saskia,’ he says. He reeks of alcohol. I’m taken aback and blurt out that he looks nothing like his photo. He just shrugs.
I go along to lunch and we manage to have a laugh, but deep down I feel cheated – he is clearly dishonest to have put up such a misleading photo.
I also wonder what it is about my own profile that makes him think it’s OK to make no effort. There wasn’t a second date.
![One of Saskia's happy clients who found love](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/women/2016/06/28/dating-photo_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqD-CneZQuK89LeBDiREmPIXm6LePG4sn6-29SvksbBKg.jpg?imwidth=350)
At the time I was 37. I’d been single for seven years, had been on dates with 30 men and had tried most dating websites, including Guardian Soulmates, and Love and Friends. I was happy in my career as a charity manager, had good friends and plenty of hobbies, including photography.
I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult to find a man – and why I was feeling duped by the men I did meet, whose photographs were outdated.
Roughly one in every three dates I went on, I was met by a man who looked nothing like his profile picture. Those who did post honest photos would often put me off in other ways: worst was the man who had taken a selfie in his bathroom mirror and captured a tube of haemorrhoid cream in the background.
Fortunately, I got lucky and eventually met my current partner online. His picture wasn’t great but it was honest, and we gelled straight away. My friends, meanwhile, continued to share dating horror stories of the men who looked nothing like their profiles.
So, after doing a course in photography at Central Saint Martins, I decided to do something about it: I set up my own photography business, Hey Saturday, specialising in dating profiles.
My first client was the cousin of a friend. She was nervous – which is my biggest challenge, as nerves make it hard to get great shots. But eventually we got in the zone and she loved the pictures.
Today, I’ve shot profile photos for almost 1,000 people – the youngest was 22 and the eldest 72. We shoot in London, Brighton and Edinburgh, and I now employ a team of five photographers to help.
The best part of my job is the feedback: one lady I shot, who was visiting her sister in London from her home in the US, emailed me recently to tell me she had just got engaged.
When her now-fiancé saw her photo, he said, ‘That’s the woman I’m going to marry.’ I pumped my fist in the air when I heard that – it’s a really fantastic feeling.
Has one day changed your life? Email us at stella@telegraph.co.uk or tweet us @stellamagazine #OneDay