I’ve been working on a new project. I’m photographing every roll of film I own on Fuji Instax Mini film. These are the first two rolls I’ve captured and they are part of a new series I’m calling Film on Film. They were shot using a Diana F+ with Instant Back and it took me eight attempts before I got it right.

It isn’t easy to photograph a roll of film on Instax Mini with the Diana F+. I wanted the roll to fill the frame and that meant moving it closer to the lens. Sadly, none of the lenses made for the Diana F+ are able to focus close enough. The Close-up lens (which attaches to the 55 mm lens) can only focus on an object that is precisely 15 cm away from the lens and that wasn’t close enough for the roll to fill the frame. So I had to improvise.

To get the shot I wanted, I had to use the Diana’s 75 mm Premium Glass lens with a Holga Close-up lens attached to it with some masking tape. The Holga Close-up lens (CL-120) can focus on an object 12 cm away, but since it was never designed for the Diana F+, I wasn’t sure it would even work. Amazingly it did! The focus isn’t as sharp as I’d like, but that’s because I fudged the distance a bit and moved my roll of film approximately 1 cm closer to the lens to fill the frame better.

For the backgrounds, I used decorative paper designed for scrapbooking and curved it upwards so that it filled the frame. A tripod, a cable release and a reflector to bounce some window light were the only other items needed to get the shot. My setup was rather hastily built for these two photos, so I built something sturdier to photograph the other rolls and switched to using my studio strobes to better control the lighting.

And if you’re curious: I haven’t tried the Fuji Super HG V 400 yet, but I have shot photos with the Perutz SC 100. I’ve had mixed results. My advice is to give it an extra stop of light.