You don’t have to live in a fashion mecca like New York City to find opportunities to have your best nail styles featured in a professional photo shoot. Take a page from the (ever-growing) book of Joy Yavenue, who enhances her nail art print and web portfolios by partnering with area entrepreneurs. Most recently the nail tech, who works at Salon Nouveau in Las Vegas, partnered with Jessica Stone, a local professional photographer who needed to build her own portfolio. Together, Yavenue, Stone, and Salon Nouveau hair and make-up stylist Tzigane Osborne arranged a week-long shoot where each volunteered her services in return for the final photos (some of which are shown here). “I was given the general themes about two weeks ahead of time,” Yavenue says. “Then each day while the hairstylist was working on the hair, she’d give me more insight into the look she was going for. For instance, the theme for one was ‘puppetry,’ so I laced string through holes that I drilled in the nail tips.”

In Manhattan Beach, Calif., owner Emi Wayner arranged for her salon, Zenka Nail Lounge, to do nails for a photo shoot hosted by neighboring apparel store Ivy Blue. The resulting photos, which include trendy nail styles like the moon manicure, are showcased in both shops. Even in North Pole, Alaska, Pampered & Polished Salon Spa partners with Breanne Kessler Photography to provide beauty services for the photographer’s shoots, then salon owner Valerie Christie makes a collage of the before and after photos for promotional use.