The Front Steps Project | Ventura County Family Photographer

#TheFrontStepsProject - Ventura

GoFundMe donation link

Thank you for participating in this project and donating to the Ventura County Community Foundation. If you haven’t had a chance to make your donation, click right here to get to the GoFundMe page. I will be ending the GoFundMe campaign by April 30th, so please donate before then. Thank you!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and finding your groove with this new rhythm of life. Thank you again for signing up and participating in the Front Steps Project with me. This was something that brought so much positivity and happiness to me whenever I had the chance to hop in the car, play some tunes, and chat with and photograph new and old friends, even if it was only for a few minutes. I hope that our 5 minute interactions also brought something positive to yours. It was bittersweet to suspend the project to respect the stay at home order but it was the right thing to do. For those who signed up but couldn’t get our session in, I will be reaching out to get your portraits done once the stay at home order is lifted. Take care and stay safe, everyone!

-Po

Here’s how to download your photos - please download your photographs by April 30, 2020 before the gallery expires!

1. Visit this link: https://pochi.instaproofs.com/TheFrontStepsProjectVentura

2. Find your gallery

3. Your password is: ALL IN CAPS. First letter of your first name and your last name. For example, my password is PFUNG

4. Once you’re in your gallery, you can click on each photograph to view it. To download your high resolution digital file, click on the download button underneath the photograph and it’ll save it to your computer. For best viewing experience, download and then open it up on your computer.

5. I will get one 4x6 print mailed to you in the next few weeks! Prints truly matter, it’s how we enjoy our photographs and our kiddos will have photographs that they can actually touch and look at, so I hope you’ll enjoy your print.  For those who are interested in making additional prints on your own with your digital files, I always recommend the consumer lab, mpix.com. If you are interested in museum quality fine prints and frames, then feel free to reach out to me with questions.

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The Front Steps Project - Ventura

What is it?

I was inspired by Cara Soulia, a Needham, MA photographer who began The Front Steps Project and decided to bring this project to my own community in Ventura. Cara stated it so well, so I am going to quote her: “The purpose of this project is to bring us together when we might feel isolated.  I aim to highlight the faces of our community during a time when we might not see them in passing at the grocery store, coffee shop, on the train or at the gym.  Participating in this project is also an opportunity to step up to help those who need it most right now in Needham.””

I am providing complimentary 5-minute "Front Steps Portraits" sessions of Ventura residents.  Participate with your family, your dog, your roommates!

After your session, I will mail you a small print of your portrait and email you a digital file.  In exchange, I am asking for your donation to the Ventura County Community Foundation and permission to share these images. I chose the Ventura County Community Foundation because they’ve begun the Ventura County Rapid Response Fund to support “nonprofit organizations addressing the needs of individuals and families with food and housing support, childcare, wage replacement, mental health care, and more.  The fund will also go to supporting small businesses through this crisis.”

I will be posting these images on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #TheFrontStepsProject and #TheFrontStepsProjectVentura.

How is this going to work? I will be taking images outside ONLY and from at least 10 feet away. Our session will take approximately 5 minutes. To participate, sign up via the form below! I will contact you within 2-3 business days to schedule our 5-minute session!

To donate - GoFundMe Link

Po Chi Fung is a Ventura County Family Photographer, serving Ventura, Ojai, Montecito, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, and other surrounding areas. She specializes lifestyle family photography for families, children, newborn, and Fresh48 photography. She captures real-life moments with a lifestyle and documentary approach on film to tell your family's story. If you’d like a session like this, please inquire, I’d love to hear from you!

Branding Photography | Ventura County Commercial Photographer

If you are a business who wants to tell an authentic story of who you are, what you do, and how you do it, then I’d love to work with you. I offer commercial photography in Ventura County and Santa Barbara County and specialize in documentary style branding photography for small businesses and creatives.

I have always been a process nerd. I want to know why people do what they do, how do people do what they do???? Don’t you? More often than not, when I am watching someone do something they love, I see an inescapable confidence, energy, and joy. As a small business owner myself, I especially love capturing small businesses in action and creating photographs that tell their story of why they do what they do, how they service their clients, and how much they love doing what they do.

Here are some of my favorites:

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If you are passionate about your work and want someone to capture your work and your process, reach out below. I’d love to chat with you!!!

Modern School Portraits for Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County

I treasure my time and interaction with each child and it is humbling to watch them grow over the years. I don’t believe that school portraits have to be awkward and embarrassing. If you’d like to offer your students and parents high quality school portraits that truly reflect children’s unique personalities, then I’d love to work with you!

MY APPROACH

My goal is to provide authentic, modern, and timeless school portraits to parents via schools who have selected me as their school photographer. I provide a professional and stress-free experience to schools and parents.  And much like my approach to family photography, my time with students are fun and relaxed - there will never be any stiff poses and forced smiles! 

As a small business, I provide customized services to each school to prepare for an efficient and fun picture day. In ensuring the least amount of work for schools, all proofing and ordering are done online and I am available to answer all questions from families about picture day and ordering. As a courtesy to schools, I offer complimentary photos for staff members and donate 10% of profits to your school. My rates for school portraiture is competitive - I offer three simple collections, digital files, and a la carte prints to fit everyone's needs.

I'd love to work with your school if you would like portraits that reflect your students the way that they are. Let’s chat!

Po Chi Fung is a school portrait photographer based in Ventura. She serves the following counties: Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles.

The Merschat Family // Ventura Family Photographer + Gallery Designer

Okay, I’ve been negligent in my blogging but you can surely understand that I needed to get out in the sunshine and taking in ocean air instead of sitting at my computer, right? :)

I’m super excited to share this fun session with you! This mama recently confessed to me that she had scouted me out as a potential friend when she came across my website based on keywords such as Hong Kong, foodie, and funny. What an honor! It is hard to believe that was three and a half years ago and I’ve been enjoying her and her family’s friendship since then..even when we are on opposite coasts.

Before we get to the photographs, I did want to talk about printing and framing. One of my biggest focus as a photographer aside from creating images that reflect your family’s personality is to help you create archival prints, design the right custom wall art for your wall, and put together albums that you and your family can enjoy for a long time. Your photographs are meant to be enjoyed and they should make you happy whenever you see it, right? One thing I’ve noticed is that most clients often struggle with sizing and how to print their photographs. My job is to help you take the guess work out of that and make sure it looks perfect over the mantle or in your kids’ playroom.

Enjoy your day!

-Po

Life Lately | Ventura and Santa Barbara Family Photographer

In honor of black & white November, here are some recent black & white favorites! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

Po Chi Fung is a Ventura County Family Photographer, also serving Ojai, Montecito, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, and other surrounding areas. She specializes in family, newborn, Fresh48 photography. She captures real-life moments with a documentary approach on film to tell your family's story. If you’d like a session like this, please inquire, I’d love to hear from you.

On the ordinary | Ventura and Santa Barbara Family Photography

The ordinary - something I already knew that I should not and cannot take for granted. Yet, in light of daily, hourly NPR stories and news articles about the on-going devastated state that many parents are in due to family separations, I am extra thankful and grateful for our everyday ordinariness. But I also wonder as I hear mothers sob on the radio, why the F should this be such a luxury? So, for those of us who have it, let's embrace our ordinary, let's remember it, and let's help those who don't. 

With our move to another house in Ventura, it's been hard finding time and energy to pick up my camera and shoot personal work but I always try to squeeze a few frames here and there in. I'll be honest that when I opened up my film scans from the lab, I thought, "Oh god, what are these photos, couldn't I have made cooler shots?"  Later that afternoon, I started to feel overwhelmed and realize how glad I was to have these photographs. These photos authentically represent our lives as it is right now - summer, swim lessons, lots of snacks, our pizza movie nights on Fridays, their non-stop shenanigans, and our new house. 

They might not be beautiful portraits at glowy golden hour at the beach or atop of a mountain but they are the most beautiful part of my memory. And this is why I will always advocate for family and newborn sessions in your home - portraits yes but also details of your lives. And if you can't hire a photographer, then I beg you to please, please photograph your ordinary with whatever you have, get in the frame, and print them out. They will become our treasures.

Awhai Pottery - Ventura County Branding Photographer for Small businesses & Creatives - Ojai, CA

I LOVE watching other people work. It is an amazing experience to see how someone does what he/she does because the meticulousness of the process, the energy, and all the little kinks and quirks all lead to the final product. The obsession is what makes me want to work with more small business and creatives. In many many ways, it isn't unlike lifestyle and documentary family photography. It is observing and documenting people doing what they love, in an environment that they love. I'd love to work with more small business and creatives in the Ventura and Santa Barbara area. If you’d love to work with a Ventura branding photographer to create content for your brand, then give me a shout!

Without further ado, I am so excited to share some photographs that I took of Emily, of Awhai Pottery, working in her studio in Ojai, CA. 

Have a great weekend! 

Geekery: Pentax 645n, Fuji400H + Portra400

Mama & Me - Ventura Family Photographer - Ventura, CA

An article I came across a while back made me cringe, it was titled, "The sad reason why many mothers take selfies with their kids." I wished the article didn't resonate with me, but it did. If I didn't take selfies with my kids, I wouldn't have many photographs with them. That was the truth despite my best attempt at reminding my husband to take photographs of us just doing regular things. He tries, he really does with the best intention, he just isn't programmed to reach for a phone or camera for the everyday, ordinary moments, that I wish were captured. This is why I am an advocate for getting a lifestyle & documentary family session done once a year in our home! And that is also why I am the creepy fellow mom at the playground, at the beach, at the grocery store, who asks strangers if they want me to take a photograph of them with their kids. Interestingly, half the moms I ask say, "Oh my gosh, that would be so wonderful" and half the moms I ask say, "oh no, no thank you!" 

It seems sad that many mamas just don't have photographs of them with their children while mothering and loving our kids, something we spend majority of our time doing. And it certainly isn't only because our partners don't photograph; we moms also say things like "Ahhh, don't photograph me now, our hair/body/clothing/face just doesn't look right." What I want to say to that is: (1) who cares, let our kids remember us the way we really were!!! Isn't that better than not being in the photographs at all(2) invest in family photography (3) and keep taking those selfies. We ought to be in photographs our kids can have for the rest of their lives. When our kids flip through their photo albums (yes, people still and SHOULD print their photographs), should we really exist only in 1 out of 89 photographs taken that day? The answer is NO, because we were totally there 100% of the time. 

The fact that mamas have a hard time getting in the frame is exactly why I offer mini sessions. It's not the remedy to the entire problem that we have but it is something. 

If you'd like to catch my once a year Mama & Me mini sessions, click here and reserve your spot. One day only - 4/29. And if not me, PLEASE find another photographer that you love and get in the frame ASAP. Do it for yourself and your kiddos!

Po Chi Fung is a Ventura Family Photographer, also serving Ojai, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, and other surrounding areas. She specializes in family, newborn, Fresh48 photography. She captures real-life moments with a documentary approach on film to tell your family's story.