Local photographer raises $4k for Ballard Food Bank through pandemic ‘porch portraits’

A photographer in Olympic Manor has raised $4,000 for the Ballard Food Bank by offering family “porch portraits” in her neighborhood.

Over the course of 10 days, Renata Steiner photographed 54 households who posed on the front steps of their homes for five-minute photo sessions. Steiner, who runs a photography business called Nataworry Photography, asked that all proceeds go directly to the Ballard Food Bank.

Steiner used a telephoto lens for the portraits, which she says were taken from far more than six feet away. Families who signed up for the photo sessions would receive a text from Steiner when she was out front (no doorbells were rung, she notes), and they’d emerge—with dogs, in costumes, and some with pandemic-appropriate props—for their portraits.

Steiner emailed each family their photo within 24 hours, and the recipients would then make same-day cash donations to the food bank.

“While this was a 100 percent fundraising effort, I made out like a bandit,” Steiner says, because even while social distancing, she said she’s never felt closer to her community.

“Their smiles, generosity, and gratitude expressed to me for giving them a fun, brief moment to not only escape their self isolation but also feel good about giving back to the community has made my heart full. Good on you, Olympic Manor. We’re all in this together.”

To see all the porch portraits, Steiner will be posting the 55 photos on her company’s Facebook page in the coming days.