Men's Lifestyle

The use of Tinder has been transformed since it’s creation. It was once seen as a bit of a sleazy app for your phone to hook up with people and have one night stands, it was then the dating app people used but never admitted to using; It’s gone from that to being completely legit; Not just a dating app, but now seen as a more sociable app to have actual casual dates.

Unlike the traditional dating sites or apps where you have to fill in a huge amount of information, Tinder is more picture focused, so having a good set of pics is vital for you. But what makes a good picture? Actually, it’s a good set of pictures you need, not just one. Here’s a few tips and some do’s and don’ts when your picking out your profile pictures.

Tinder Pictures – The Do’s

Strategically order your images

You need to be a little clever when ordering your images. The first should be a straight forward profile pic of you, smiling. People who smile look friendly and approachable. First impressions are everything, so you need to avoid being swiped left at first sight. You should have a good few pictures, 3 or 4 is fine, with the order of what’s important to you.

Show off your personal style, without showing off!

How you dress says a lot about you, and of course you can check out the many men’s fashion tips right here on Michael 84 😉 Make sure you look the part in your pictures without over-doing it. Make sure it’s a true representation of your own style.

A well rounded set of pictures – Include hobbies

Your pictures should tell a story of your life. Don’t use 5 pictures of your nights out with your friends, or 5 pictures of that epic Halloween party. Along with your main profile pic, choose images which include your hobbies; If you go running include one of those; Or maybe at a gig, cooking, or whatever you’re hobbies are. When a girl sees it she’ll think you’re a good match if you’re into the same things. Travel pics are also good, but don’t overdo it. The key is to create a well rounded set of pictures.

The Don’ts

No Girls/Girlfriends in the pictures

Tinder has the social aspect, but it’s essentially a dating app. If you’re putting pictures up there with a girl around your arms it doesn’t really send out the best of signals. You’d be surprised how many people do this, both lads and lasses. Leave your friends/relatives of the opposite sex out the pics, you can intro them at a later date. STRICTLY NO EX’S! (Do I really need to say that?).

No group shots

Which one is he? That’s what she’ll be thinking when/if she checks out all your pics and it’s a group shot in every photo. It’s your profile, not your friends, so it’s about you. Group photos are never a good idea; If your friend’s better looking than you then she’ll be attracted to him, if he’s a lout she might wonder what kind of company you keep.

No shirtless photos

Congratulations on achieving a six pack and that amazing body. Now cover it up with a good fitting shirt or tee. It looks like your trying too hard, looking for attention and are incredibly vein. Wear the right clothes and leave the rest to her imagination.

No selfies in the mirror

Selfies in the mirror? What can I say, it’s not a good look for a dating pic. Get a friend to take a photo, choose a photo someone has taken of you, use a timer on a camera.

No model shots (Unless you are, in fact, a model)

As with the shirtless photos, a model-type shot will make you look vein. You’re supposed to be approachable, not untouchable.

Photo qualities and types – The don’t do’s.

Don’t use blurry photos for obvious reasons, they’re blurry! Use a variation of photos with different poses and situations, so don’t use 5 different slightly different headshots. With that in mind, don’t use any headshots, or just one; A face filling the whole photo is not a good representation, and looks like you’re far too close to the camera. Keep clear of quirky pics, if you must, then only one. Nobody looking at that photo will know the funny story behind it, so leave it alone.

Verdict

Remember that a picture says a thousand words, so you want to create a good set of pictures of yourself, and it’s all about having fun in the end. Trying to sell yourself is quite a task, but selecting the right photos showcasing yourself will certainly help. Happy hunting! 😀

You know it’s been a good night when you come back home and it’s daylight… 😉

Last night was a good night! It was the Champions League final and we went out to watch it; I am not the biggest fan of watching football in bars and things like that, especially when it’s quite a neutral game i.e. watching Barca vs Juve in Newcastle; It’s not the same atmosphere as watching a Newcastle game in Newcastle, or watching the home team in their place, it’s always amazing! Still, it was pretty good, and we watched the first half in Pacific Bar, and the second in Centurion. I am sure you know the score, Barca won 3-1, so I was happy

I have no beard! Yes, it’s the summer (apparently) so I got round to shaving it off, finally! It feels strange, and I think I look weird now after having facial hair since the start of the year, even though for the previous 30 years of life I pretty much haven’t 😛 I will stick to being clean shaven for the summer, and probably go back to the beard in November for Movember, although I do sort of miss it already.

I have been wearing black shirts a lot lately, if you’ve seen me wearing them for a couple of days I have a few, I swear! 😛 This one is one of my favourites, a Ted Baker shirt, made from silky smooth cotton. After the match we went to a few places in Newcastle around the central station, the night flew, and it was light when I got back; I love the summer! 🙂

Hey guys!

I hope you ‘ve all had a good Bank Holiday, which is the penultimate summer bank holiday…We have to wait until August for the next one! I have had such a great long weekend, if not a busy one.

First up there was the Eurovision; I usually make a big deal of it, but this year I didn’t bother, and just watched the show. If you are into Eurovision then you’ll of liked it, if you don’t, well, you probably weren’t watching anyway

One of the best parts of the show is actually the points, and this year was probably the best ever, it was a 3 horse race with Italy, Sweden and Russia, Italy fell away with Russia having a pretty good lead, Sweden came back from it and didn’t look back and won. It was pretty exciting 😀

Sunday was the big day of the weekend, I was at a friends wedding in Edinburgh. I got the train up in the morning and it was my first time in Edinburgh, other than going to the airport last year 😛 It was a great day, the weather was pretty good i.e. it did not rain and there was some sun.

My suit  was pretty smart as you can see. It was typical men’s wedding attire. I wore an Alfred Brown slim fit suit in navy blue, with a light blue striped Jaeger shirt, ASOS tie & pocket square and Kurt Geiger shoes. BTW the beard is going soon, this could be one of my last pics with it so say goodbye! 😉

I took this pic on the train…You can’t see it much in the picture, but it’s one solitary house all on it’s own in the middle of nowhere. Quite a good get-a-way, but I don’t think I could cope living out there way out in the countryside.

It was also the final day of the Premier League, and Newcastle stayed up! They beat West Ham 2-0 with Hull drawing 0-0 with Man Utd. So a good weekend all round 😉 It was the last day for the Super 6, and Phil Thomson beat me by 1 point! The F1 was also on which I missed, I need to watch it on Catch-up but I heard that Lewis Hamilton did not win, so I assume something happened since he was on pole.

Today has been all about relaxing and chilling out, back to the real world in the morning.

I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂

When you think of American whisky one of the brand’s that instantly springs to mind is Jack Daniel’s, and why not, it’s the highest selling American whisky in the world. Specifically Tennessee whisky, it’s made up of 80% corn, 12% rye and 8% malt and has been distilled and bottled in Lynchburg, Tennessee since 1875.

One of the classic drinks which you can make is a Jack and Coke, or JD and Coke as many know it by. As you can imagine it’s a really simple drink to make, and starts with a good measure of No.7 Jack Daniel’s with some classic Coca Cola in a hi ball glass. Jack Daniel’s sent over some ingredients and their glass, which has a handy measure on if you need to use it. The official guide for measuring is 1 part Jack Daniel’s, 3 parts Coke, and you can add a slice of lime for garnish.

There’s plenty of other drinks you can make with Jack Daniel’s including a Jack Julep, Jack Daniel’s Manhattan and a Lynchburg Lemonade. Check out more recipes at JackDaniels.com here.

In collaboration with Jack Daniels

My idea of a good holiday has changed a lot since I was younger. There was only a handful of things I wanted to do when going on most holidays, that included sunbathing and relaxing by the pool, doing the same at the beach, and having a big night out, every night of my holiday.

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Last week I introduced the brand new Lynx Black collection which has just been launched. The collection is all about understated style, and so I have created an outfit for a night out which showcases an understated style, while keeping very smart at the same time.

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I have always fancied going to York for a day/night, we’ve talked about it for a long time but never actually got round to going, and so since it was a Bank Holiday weekend we decided to actually go to York. It’s a cool place, picturesque and plenty going on with shops, bars etc. They’ve got a lot of the bars we have in Newcastle, so we went to places like The Slug And Lettuce, Yates’s, Pitcher & Piano, Revolution and Popworld.

They have a few cool bars which we went in that they don’t have in Newcastle, like Stone Roses bar which was pretty decent, The Graduate which is the same group of bars which owns The Library in Durham, and the coolest bar there which was The Parish. It’s a converted church building which looks like a small church from the outside, but is pretty big once you get in with tables and seating around the outside and a large dance floor in the middle. Since we only spent the day there we got in quite early and so it was just starting to get people in.

I wore: Selected Homme Jacket | Jaeger Shirt | Armani Jeans | Hugo Boss Knit

Stone Roses bar.

The Parish in York…Looks like an old church, it was an old church, but it’s in fact a bar.

Inside the Parish.

Happy Air Max Day!

What a good day it is. Since it’s Air Max Day I had to wear my newest pair of Nike Air Max, my Air Max 1 Ultra Moire. I love these, they are so cool, super lightweight and I just love the minimal but stylish colour.

I wore them with my Gant dip dye sweatshirt, and Cheap Monday black jeans. I also had to put on my Ray Ban aviators 🙂

You should check out the Evolution of visible Air infographic I posted the other day, it’s pretty cool 😉 More pics below…

What a nice day it has been so far! We had the sun, then we sort of didn’t…Then we did again! If you were late getting up, live in a place where you couldn’t see it or simply didn’t know, today we had a solar eclipse which was partially visible in the UK. It was most visible in places just North of the UK, like the Faroe Islands, but in Newcastle and the North of the UK, we saw 90% or more of the eclipse…It was pretty cool! 😀

I remember in 1999 there was a total eclipse in the Summer, but only from the South of the country, places like Cornwall. I remember there was such excitement over it, and I remember them covering it on The Big Breakfast and telling you to wear some special glasses (I think they’d given some away LOL). Back then I did not really see much, but this time I did!

Here’s the shots I got on my camera. I am no expert (clearly!) but I am happy with the shots I got…I’ve seen some others and they were not very good at all! 😛 Sadly it was not a clear sky where I was, there were clouds but I did manage to get a few shots. It was supposed to all happen at 09:30, luckily I was out before that and saw the very start and end of it. I took so many shots! Changing settings, angles and so on, and I think these few are among the best ones I have. I am forever learning photography so it was fun and challenging taking photos like this, something I’ve never done before, and playing around with all the settings on manual. I’ve previously taken night shots when searching for the Northern Lights but this was quite different.

I had taken a few with my wide angle lens, it wasn’t good for the job, so I used my telephoto lens which I rarely use…I am so glad I bought it now!

All photos Copyright Michael Adams / Michael84.co.uk | Do not use/reproduce

Valentines Day is almost here! Even though I am single I am excited for it, this year I have been designing T-Shirts for work for Valentines Day for about 4 weeks now, so I am really in the spirit of things. If you read my blog for the past few years, you’ll also know that I call 14th February “Michael Day” and have champagne and lots of other great stuff which I’ll be blogging about on the day

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