Entry Barred

After dining on prawn noodles (see the previous post), I spotted this really old decrepit two-storey house just next to the coffee-shop. The main house appeared to have been burnt down, was in total disrepair with broken windows and doors, and appeared to be just waiting for the demolition crew to turn up. The side-building (which could have been the servants' quarters or the kitchen, can't tell which) fared a little bit better and had these two red doors (locked) standing side by side. The original colors were a little dull and faded but the composition looked great.

After cropping the picture, saturating the colors a little bit and finally rendering the same in a water-color and pen format (using Photoshop), I really like how the red color of the doors stand out against the grey and white patches of wall, and the fine cracks showing up on the walls and the paintwork of the doors. Finally, nature did its part with that bit of stray plant at the bottom corner of the step, thus breaking the potential monotony in the symmetry of this shot. This is really one of my favourite pictures so far, and I don't care a hoot about the purist photographer who views photoshopping as cheating. A picture is supposed to evoke an emotion, and if you need to edit it to get a better shot, why ever not? {by the way, I think viewing the picture in a larger size may allow for better appreciation - try it at this link.}


And before I left, also saw this most unusual sight of a wheel clamp wrapped around the window grills of the building. Thought it a bit too much to bar entry through a window by using a wheel clamp until I read a sign further to the right warning against illegal parking on the site of this house, and remembered that this site is also just next to the Jalan Besar Stadium and on football nights, there're probably quite a few potential offenders. In fact, if you take a look at the right bottom corner of the picture, you might be able to spot the number plates of some prior offenders - hopefully, these numbers don't belong to your vehicles!