Astoria Boudoir brings ‘intimate photography’ to Columbia-Pacific
Published 5:00 pm Monday, March 28, 2011
“When you’re behind the camera, you’re serving people,” said the owner of Astoria Boudoir.
According to a photography marketing website, “boudoir photography” is defined as intimate photography, or the art of “visually capturing beautiful, sensuous and sexy photos of regular women.”
| Jody Patterson-Morrill, who owns Astoria Boudoir, is shown in a rare moment on the opposite side of the camera. Submitted photo |
Although she lives in Cathlamet, Patterson-Morrill’s photography customer base is largely in Astoria.
She also operates Columbia Doulas Group, a Longview, Wash.-based certified doula business. Doulas help women and other family members through childbirth by providing continuous physical, emotional and informational support throughout the experience.
Doula comes from the Greek word for the chief female slave or servant in an ancient Greek household.
Patterson-Morrill, who began shooting boudoir photos in January after conducting a session as a favor for a friend, said she applies the “servant” philosophy to her photography, as well.
“After that first woman got her book (of photos), I thought, ‘Other women need to feel this way.'” After shooting a number of similar sessions – including a day-long session for several women at a local hotel – “I kind of got addicted to it,” she said.
“After that session, I got a thank-you letter that made me cry.” Patterson-Morrill recently shot portraits of a pregnant woman and her husband. “I’ll be shooting their newborn photos, too,” she said.
Patterson-Morrill is pretty much a self-taught photographer. “I don’t have any formal training,” she said. “I’ve taken a few community college black-andwhite film classes, some cheap webinars and learned from what I call YouTube University.” She said she paid particular attention to YouTube videos produced by Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis.
“One of the things people say is, ‘If you want to get good at photography, take a lot of pictures,'” she said. “I started shooting pictures when I was 8 years old. My first camera was a blue plastic camera that I bought with my allowance.”
While in high school, Patterson-Morrill bought a Pentax K1000. She later lost it, along with her luggage, on an airplane flight. “I learned the first lesson of photography and travel: the camera goes as carry-on.”
These days, Patterson- Morrill shoots with a Canon EOS 30D digital single-lens reflex. She uses modified shop lights on her subjects instead of professional studio lights.
“They’re like $40 instead of hundreds of dollars,” she said. She also uses a professional photo lab.
Patterson-Morrill offers four-hour photography sessions and a-la-carte photo pricing.
