Dispo Diaries: All Around Havelock and Maxwell
Recently discovered and visited Tanjong Pagar, Singapore — currently my favorite place to just walk around and people watch.
So apparently it’s already the 4th day of 2026. Where did the time go?
One of the things I am trying to do this year is take more photos and publish them— hence the revamping of the photography journal, as I wrote here. I took some time over the university break to think about why photography feels more like a hassle to me in 2025. I mean, I brought my camera kit when I moved to Singapore, but just left it there as I discovered the little nooks and crannies of the Little Red Dot, relying primarily on my phone to capture moments. Apparently, I overthink too much about moments that I thought were “camera worthy”, as if the everyday moments in my life here are not worth documenting the way I like it. I thought, ok, how do I try to make myself overthink less about taking photos? What are my mental blocks here? I identified some quickly:
Raw pictures rotting away in my “Unedited” Lightroom library (fact: I have pictures dating back from my 2018 trip to Seoul there that I have not touched).
Heavy lens (fact: my 16mm f1.4, while beautiful, is quite heavy in comparison to the rather compact XT-2 body. It does have the wide aperture that I love to have in my lenses).
Editing pictures to the tone that I like, on top of graduate school work and just trying to steer away some time to lay down in bed doing nothing (fact: I used to think preset filters were cheating or whatever, but like... I was already copy-pasting my edits to different photos anyway? So who was I kidding, really?).
…ok, let’s just say 2025 was not a year for my photography hobby, ok? So it’s time to make photography fun again, Miranda. Let’s go. Enter new lenses (I am trying out 7Artisan 23mm f/1.2 and TTArtisan 50mm f/0.95 this time — more to write about these when I use them more often!) and the lens I will dedicate this series to: a disposable lens revamped for my XT-2.
Why a disposable lens, you might ask? Honestly, a lot of it is FOMO.
A close friend here loves shooting everyday moments with his film camera. It's a rising, quite persistent trend among photographers—one I love, btw, because there's a beauty and rawness to film that digital can't quite replicate yet. But knowing what an antsy perfectionist I am (yes, I'm working on it), I decided film cameras aren't for me — at least not yet. Or more like, I'd feel guilty wasting 32 frames when I take 10 shots of the same sunset. Again, working on it!
But I still wanted the look, feel, and experience of photos taken on film, though. A long doomscroll through the Instagram algorithm (we have a love-hate relationship), which introduced me to disposable lenses for mirrorless cameras. It's basically a repurposed lens from a disposable camera, with a 3D-printed frame that fits mirrorless bodies—including my XT-2. I got mine from Siam Dispo, a Thai-based company that sells on Shopee Singapore. Girl loves her Shopee, really.
The lens is actually really cute — I got the special-edition flower-shaped version with a “standard” 24mm focal length, so I guess with my XT-2 it’s roughly equivalent to a 35mm.
I first took the lens for a walk around the Havelock and Maxwell MRT stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line, strolling through Tiong Bahru and Tanjong Pagar neighbourhoods. I love these two neighbourhoods for different reasons: Tiong Bahru has the quaint charm of 60s-70s Singapore, with its uniquely designed vintage HDBs, and Tanjong Pagar has a mix of revamped shophouses and newly built skyscrapers and high-rises. To me, both areas are parts of what Singapore is — pieces of a big puzzle, connecting the old, classic charm of Peranakan culture (i.e., the shophouses) with the modern economic powerhouse that makes it the richest SEAbling among the 11 ASEAN countries, haha. Also, these areas have some of my favourite local cafes: the classic Tiong Bahru bakery and the new(er) ones I’m discovering in Tanjong Pagar as I continue my stay in Singapore.
I wanted to challenge myself on this photo walk by “reducing” what’s actually within my control, since the disposable lens lacks a focus or aperture ring. I also have to crank up the ISO and change the white balance setting of my camera to exactly get the tone and vibe that I’m looking for. It forced me to get back to the basics of photography: candid, raw, and focus on the moments around me.
Little did I know it would actually be fun AND relaxing. Here are some of my favourite shots
(Hint: Click on the image to see them in full size, or click here to see the full gallery)
I think you can see that these photos have an imperfect charm to them. The framing might be off, they're not the sharpest, the outputs are grainy because of the high ISO… but the joy and thrill of taking these pictures reminded me that there's something beautiful about imperfect shots. Looking at them brings back the everyday moments and memories behind each frame—it feels more personal, more me.
And honestly? I want more of that.
So I'm starting Dispo Diaries, a series where I dedicate specific photo walks or travels to shooting exclusively with this lens—no edits, no overthinking—just straight out of the camera (SOOC). The whole idea is to capture those raw, candid, lively moments exactly as they happened, imperfections and all. Because sometimes the blur, the vignetting, the weird light leaks? They capture something more real than any perfectly edited photo could.
The first Dispo Roll is linked here, with more pictures from my Havelock-Maxwell outing if you want to see what happens when I stop trying to control everything. As one should, honestly — life happens when you are trying to plan, right?
Until then, see you later! There's always more stories to tell.