MODERNAPERTURE
Visit Live Site →The Challenge
This one is different. MODERNAPERTURE isn't a client — it's mine. A photography studio specializing in headshots, personal branding, and creative editorial portraits for San Diego creatives and entertainers.
The challenge wasn't technical. It was personal. Having the talent but not having the skills to showcase that talent. Knowing that your work deserves better than a template site with default fonts and stock layouts — but not yet knowing how to build what you see in your head.
The Solution
I built it myself. Every line of HTML. Every CSS rule. Every word of copy.
Designing for yourself is a different kind of struggle. There's no client brief to follow, no approval process to hide behind. Just you, staring at your own work, striving for a perfection that — I eventually discovered — doesn't exist. Or at least not in the way I thought.
The site is dark, editorial, intentional. A full-bleed hero, asymmetric portfolio grid, wireless strobist philosophy front and center. The design doesn't look like other photographer websites because MODERNAPERTURE doesn't shoot like other photographers. Drag performers, musicians, artists, creatives — the work is bold, and the site had to match.
Every page was written with keyword research behind it. "Headshot photographer San Diego" drives the homepage. Individual service pages target specific high-volume terms. Schema markup, proper heading hierarchy, optimized meta tags — the same SEO treatment I give every client.
The Result
Since the new site launched, Google search visibility has increased dramatically. In a market as saturated as photography, that matters.
But the real result wasn't traffic. It was confidence. Building MODERNAPERTURE's site is what gave me the bravery and strength to do this for other small local businesses and creatives. Seeing what a properly designed, SEO-optimized website could do for my own brand made me fall in love with the process of designing, building, and optimizing content for Google.
MODERNAPERTURE is where Coastform Studio was born. Every project I take on today exists because this one came first.
