Day in my Life - virtual schooling at home | Ventura County Family Photographer - Santa Barbara County Family Photographer

How is everyone doing??? How’s living with a seemingly constant heightened stress level and need for alertness? It’s not just me, is it? Any time someone asks me, “how are you doing?” the answer is always kind of strange, “We are fine because we are super lucky…but it’s also not fine? It seems hard to find peace these days. I’m stressed about watching our Country burn and sad that 2020 feels like a train wreck? You?” After every single one of those conversations, friends and I always conclude that it is perhaps OK to not be completely OK even if we are grateful for everything we have.

Anyhow, we are in full swing over here with virtual learning. I’ve always had a great appreciation for educators but really, more so now than ever before. We are so grateful for all that our teachers and administrators at school are doing to help teach our kids despite all the challenges and extra work they’ve had to take on. Here’s a little glimpse of our days these days. Oh…what’s not pictured? Me trying to bang my head into a table :)

Camera: Canon 1v

Film: Portra 400, pushed 2 stops

Po Chi Fung is a family photographer based in Ventura, California. She captures real-life moments with a documentary approach on film to tell your family's story and specializes in producing long-lasting storytelling albums and heirloom wall art for her clients. Po Chi Fung Photography L.L.C. serves Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County - Ventura, Ojai, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Pasadena, San Marino, and other surrounding areas.

School Portraits and COVID-19 - Ventura County School Portrait Photographer

Modern and timeless school portraits in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County during the time of COVID-19:

To prevent the spread of COVID, photographers are currently only allowed to photograph outdoors, masked, and social distanced. Where I’ve had to set up for school portraits and how schools conduct picture day has had to change, so we can keep everyone safe but it definitely doesn’t mean that the quality of these school portraits have to change at all.

These portraits were made in an enclosed school parking lot! Check out the behind-the-scenes photograph below.

Here’s a little behind the scene shot

Behind the scenes: My school portrait set up in an enclosed school parking lot that day.

Behind the scenes: My school portrait set up in an enclosed school parking lot that day.

Are you interested in high quality and timeless school portraits for your students (daycare, preschool, K-12, public school, private schools) while being as safe as possible during this COVID-19 pandemic? Reach out here or call our studio at 805-850-3931 to inquire about school portraits in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County.

Families at the Beach | Ventura County Family Photographer

After spending months of photographing only the people I live with, I am REALLY really excited to be booking family portrait sessions and newborn sessions outdoors again. We’ll photograph in an outdoor space that you love whether it be your backyard or your favorite beach and I’ll be wearing a mask and keeping my 6-feet distance from you all to protect our families. And like my in-home family sessions, it’ll be all about you guys doing your favorite activities in a space that you love.

I’m excited to share a really fun beach session with you all today! My beach sessions are all about documenting how you and your family spend your time at the beach - is it sandcastles or is it swimming and splashing or all of it? Whatever it is, let’s document it!

Interested in preserving your family memories on your favorite beach with your favorite people? Give our studio a call at 805.850.3931 or reach out here! These super fun family portrait sessions on the beach are available in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Carpinteria, and Malibu.

A nostalgic and fun super 8mm film documenting your family at your favorite beach.

Po Chi Fung is a Ventura Family Photographer, also serving Ojai, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Malibu, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Carpinteria, and 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. 

Day in my Life (stay-at-home edition) | Ventura Family Photographer - Santa Barbara Family Photographer

“We’re so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks—we’re involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don’t get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?”

― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

Things are a bit heavy these days and rightfully so. A lot, a lot of thoughts have been tornado-ing through my head since the protests have started and I am still processing all of it, so that I can do better and teach my children to be better. I also think that in the midst of learning and doing better, we have to continue to live our lives, find joy and love, and be extra grateful for what we have..that’s how we give ourselves energy and capacity to change.

I’ve always wanted to document a day of my life and my good friend, Sonia and I decided to this together, her on the East Coast in Virginia and me on the West Coast in California. We photographed our day on May 21, 2020. I shot with Kodak TMAX3200 and Sonia documented her day on XP2 (check out her post here!). My family and I still have been very cautious with the coronavirus. Some stay-at-home days feel a bit like deja vu but gosh, this is what I truly want to remember.

This quote from a book titled “Tuesdays with Morrie” sums it up well on how I feel about life….and my response would be: “Yes, this is most of what my life is..and it’s all I want.”

Andrea & her boys - A family portrait session in Ventura, CA | Ventura County Family Photographer

A lifestyle and documentary family portrait session in Ventura..documenting who we love, what we love, and where our heart is…..

Andrea reached out for a family session with her two boys to create some updated family portraits and wall art for her living room walls. So at the beginning of the year, I had the honor of photographing this super fun family in their home doing their favorite things - hanging out with their dogs, doing scooter tricks on the ramp that they built in front of their house, and playing at the beach. I always feel like that is a must given we live in Ventura, CA!

In-home family sessions are my favorites because documenting families the way they are is where my heart is. Home is where most of us feel most relaxed, where we spend the most time together, and where we make so many of our memories. There is so much worth capturing in our daily chaos, in our messes, in our “boring” routines…those are precisely what makes life life and the memories we will treasure most when we are old and gray. With COVID-19, we can’t photograph inside your homes yet but if you love to spend time in your backyard or at the beach, let’s go!

Museum quality framed photographs, canvases, and family albums for your home - Family portraits that we can enjoy in our homes, bring a smile to our faces whenever we see it, and last a lifetime and beyond.

Ventura County - Heirloom Family Portraits, Wall Gallery, Framed Family Portraits
Ventura Family Photographer - heirloom family albums - preserving family photographs for generations to come.
Ventura County Family Photographer - heirloom family albums - preserving family photographs for generations to come

Here are some of my favorite images from this session!

If you’d like me to capture your family’s story, then reach out and let’s chat! Call our studio at 805.850.3931 or contact me here!

Letters to My Children - April 2020 | Ventura County Family Photographer - Santa Barbara County Family Photographer

Dear E and M,

We’ve now been home for about a 6 weeks now since schools closed mid-March with COVID-19 taking over the world. So life lately really is just super weird. I keep waking up hoping for some “normalcy” and then realize that this IS our new normal. I’ve been cooking a ton, baking bread and thumb print jam cookies like millions of other people are doing as a coping mechanism, and thank goodness, still photographing. We’ve been spending A LOT of time together as a family, finally hanging up art work that we’ve been meaning to hang up since we’ve moved in and I’m working on getting our hallway gallery printed and hung..so we’ve been fortunate to be able to slow down and stay home instead of many who aren’t able to do so.

I think we were all doing pretty well until parks and beaches closed early April; I instantly felt as if our world was different, a lot smaller with my favorite part of living in Ventura taken away (for a good cause). The day after they closed, you guys both asked to go on a hike..to get out…get fresh air. It pained me to tell you that we couldn’t do that because of COVID-19 but that this will keep everyone safer. Since then, we’ve adjusted. You guys go on a bike ride or scooter ride usually twice a day to get your energy out. E, you started having to do homework as part of her distant learning, some days you’re super motivated and some days there are some major power struggle! There were also starting to be zoom calls everywhere, so I added scheduler and IT to my resume.

I started this new stay-at-home journey trying to be the best homeschool mom -lesson planning and creating all these art activities..but soon got burnt out. I apologize for being upset when activities didn’t pan out as I fantasized! For all of our mental health sake, I took it way easy and I think we now have a routine that isn’t too bad - some work, a lot of play and down time. To make life more fun during lock down, your dad taught you guys to play Mario Kart and you learned to bust some awesome moves playing Just Dance on the Wii. I’ve caught M singing Britney Spears’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” on more than one occasion. We swear that your team work has also improved dramatically since playing Mario Kart.

E, we celebrated your 7th birthday at the end of March with grilled pizzas for lunch, strawberry cupcakes, a birthday car parade with 10 families who came honking/cheering/blowing bubbles out of their decorated cars. You were such a good sport about the fact that we wouldn’t be having a big party with friends and family and focused on spending your special day doing things you wanted to do with just the four of us. You’ve been loving your new skateboard from your Nonnie (and getting surprisingly good at it) and Twisty Petz that you’ve been asking for for months (you wear them all at once)! We are so proud of the really cool person you are.

Truth is your father and I sometimes fantasize what lockdown would be like if we were still just the two of us…naps, netflix, take out, drinks. Oooo..sounds nice, right? But there surely would not be daily lessons of learning one’s patience level before going over the edge, all those giggles, being in awe of how you guys are growing, finding our own boundaries so we don’t go crazy, and learning to find extra space in my heart to be there for you even when I don’t want to be. I love you guys infinity much.

Love,

Mama

My favorite children's books | Ventura County Family Photographer

You know when reading time comes around with your kid(s), there are books that make you scream, “NOOOOOO, not that one again!” and there are those books that make you say, “Yesssss, my favoriteeeeee..my kid obviously loves good illustration and literature!”

I have been wanting to do a quick roundup of those very special children’s books that I genuinely love to read and look at, so here it is if you’re looking for some wonderful new books for your kids or a great present to another family. I decided not to include any links because they are of course available on Amazon but I think it’ll be even greater to grab one from a used bookstore site. Enjoy!

If you need to know my reasons, here they are:

  1. Last Stop on Market Street - A book about a little boy and his nana who volunteers at the local food share after church every Sunday. It’s about seeing beauty where most would not. I cheer every time the kids pick it out.

  2. The Day the Babies Crawled Away - A really entertaining and beautifully written story about a little boy who went on an adventure wrangling little babies who crawled away. The illustrations are OUT OF CONTROL neat.

  3. A Sick Day for Amos McGee - The story of the relationship between Amos and his friends from the zoo. A book about being caring and I LOVE Erin Stead’s illustrations.

  4. Lenny & Lucy - Love this story about a little boy and his dog who move to a new house and build imaginary friends for security. I love the little subtle details in the story and in the illustrations. Another book illustrated by Erin Stead.

  5. Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters - A funny, silly story based on a true event after an oil spill impacting penguins

  6. Sky Color - A beautiful story to make you think outside the box.

  7. The Dot - I love how this story encourages kids to keep trying and creating even if they think they aren’t very good at it.

  8. Little Owl’s Night - A great board book for a younger kiddos. I love the adorable illustrations and love the sweetness of the story.

  9. Day Dreamers - All about day dreaming and imagining…beautiful illustrations of mythical creatures, SO COOL.

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!

Po Chi Fung is a Ventura County based Photographer specializing in children portraits in studio, professional headshots, and branding and documentary photography for businesses. Po Chi Fung Photography is located in Ventura, California and serves Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County - Ventura, Ojai, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Pasadena, San Marino, and other surrounding areas.