Boudoir session, by Oscar Paradela
"When I saw my first photos made with the rz67 I almost went crazy"
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Oscar Paradela, and I am a traditional photographer. I use medium format cameras and black and white films.
Photography, for me, is a language, a way of expressing myself, all my works are usually planified and thoughtful. When I've got an idea, I like to think about it as a project or as a set of pictures, then I plan it and make it real.
In all my pictures I try to express something emotional and beauty, even when I photograph a dramatic scene, I think beauty is everywhere, from a nice girl to a dark and dangerous street.
When and how did the film journey begin for you?
I made my first shots with film when I was just a boy, my father had an Olympus OM1n camera and I used to steal it to take pictures of my home town. It was in the 90's. Then came the first digital cameras and nobody wanted to shoot with film, but the new digital cameras had a very poor resolution. It was a very difficult time for beginners in photography.
My first photographs in my new stage were made with a Pentax K10D of 10 mpx, I remember that I spent too much time editing the photos in photoshop to get a natural look and on many occasions I simply tried to imitate the look of the film. So I started researching on the internet about film photography and film cameras and finally I bought on ebay a Mamiya rz67. When I saw my first photos made with the rz67 I almost went crazy.
What cameras and film do you use?
My favorite camera with which I do almost all my work is a Bronica SQ-Ai, I bought this camera just for a trip I made to Cape Verde, because the Mamiya rz67 was too big, and finally I fell in love with the Bronica. It has a well coated and sharp lens and it is a very versatile camera.
Lately the film that I use is Kodak Trix, in the past I used a lot of Ilford HP5, but now I prefer the Kodak Trix because it has a grain less noisy and more creamy than the HP5 film. In any case, I usually like more the traditional grain films than modern tabular grains films.
Regarding this boudoir session I wanted to try more cameras, films and formats in order to look for the best choice to make this kind of photos, so I used: my Bronica SQ-Ai (6x6), the Mamiya rz67 (6x7) and also used a Mamiya 645Pro (6x4.5) and a Nikon F3 (35mm) and four films: Kodak Trix, Kodak Tmax400, Ilford Delta400 and Ilford HP5.
This was like a testing bench and I got pretty good conclusions.
Where do you develop and scan your film?
Most of my work is in black and white, so I develop the film by myself, it's easy, cheap and rewarding. My favorite developer is Kodak HC-110. I also scan the negatives by myself, but when the work is very personal I print it in my Darkroom on Ilford FB papers.
When I shot with color films I send my rolls to carmencitafilmlab.com
Who's the model and how did this idea of a project come to you?
The model's name is Ana Isabel Álvarez de Granada and she is a really amazing and professional model.
For a long time I wanted to do a photoshoot with a nice girl in an intimate place as a room of a hotel, it was like a challenge. I am living in Valladolid, it is a small town in the north of Spain, so it was not something easy to do.
I met Anaís, through a modeling agency, when I explained my project, she not only agreed but shown as much enthusiasm as I did.
The next step was to find a place to take the photos. I think that the most important for this kind of photographs is the light and the size of the place, if you have no light you will need to push the film and shoot with slow speeds, all of this makes the shooting difficult, in addition, if the place is too small you will need to use wide angle lens, which are less luminous than standard lens, so I visited several hotels in the town and finally found a beautiful and large Suite with a large window facing northeast, it was perfect!.
You can find Oscar Paradela here: www.oscarparadela.com,
Instagram.