Some Strange Old Dilapidated House... somewhere near Singapore...

[Click on the above title to go into the post]
The Grand Old House that could not be named*.
* Because no one is supposed to be trespassing there.

This was originally posted on 6th March 2011 on ClubSNAP.

[Addendum: Not long after this, the old Tyersall House, or whatever it was named, was torn down...]

In 1892

In 1892, a house was built.
It was commissioned by a phenomenally wealthy Royalty in this part of the region. And the company by which it was constructed was a well-known Chinese Construction company.
A grand structure then it was, as much as it is now.
To celebrate its completion, the owner threw a huge party, inviting the Elites of the Society and the highest ranking of the European community.

Those were its Days of Grandiose.

Today

Now it stood desolate.
Still as grand, but in a run-down way, like a Grand old dame sitting on her old stool, head down, shoulders stooped, emitting the intermittent sighs of regret.
Its day dreams interrupted by the occasional rustling noise of photographers creeping up towards its cracked wall, through the long, waist-length vegetation that has overgrown the slope of the hill upon which it stood.

Unbeknown to others, it was actually rather glad to have the rare company of these photography enthusiasts, as life was lonely all up atop the hill.
Whenever these photographers climbed over the side of the slope, panting heavily with their gears and tripods on their shoulders, it would laugh quietly inside, for it knew that they would find treasures they yearn to seek.
And in many ways, they will discover some small parts of the story that made the grand house what it was.

But it would never tell all its stories, neither could it.
Only the most persevering shooters would be able to scratch the surface of what is its deepest, darkest secret.

... Still, some crazy shooters did go recently...
... and wanted to share some IR shots...

Haha... anyway...
Let me start off with a single shot.

Taken with my Canon 20D modified with IR 535nm.

Fatigue ever told me something. He said:

"Limwhow, when you next use your 535nm, slap on your CPL and experiment with it.
You will find something very interesting when you do just that on the 535nm."

So I tried. And it was something special. But I couldn't put a finger to it.

Here is just a record shot of one of the members walking along the deserted road and hunting for the elusive house...
Haiyah... I told him not to wear his pink boxer shorts when going to old, supposedly haunted houses...
But he was adamant about it...

In 535nm IR.

Now, our good friend Thio Seng Keong also took quite a few IR shots, using Serene's ELP-modified IR camera. And in his own unique way, post-processed a shot here.

ELP shot by Thio Seng Keong

We were initially at the ground level...
... scared lah, cos some one ever warned us about the second floor crumbling down should we go up...
But then again, one of our experienced members went up and found the side stairs to be solid.
So up we all went!
... and here is the roof-top courtyard.

As the morning sun rises, the sky turned acid red.
And Thio Seng Keong came back from his patrol reporting storm approaching from the distance... (Haha... what imaginative story-telling...)

Another 535nm IR.

And here our good and brave Adrian Loh Thien Hock, Alysia and Seng Keong taking a peep in one of those many rooms...

535nm IR.

Who else but our Commanding Officer David Low Wai Mun, surverying the situation after we have taken over the house...

535nm IR.

What a mess up here...
Looks as though it has been abandoned for centuries... (well, actually most probably only decades.)

535nm IR.

Strangely, as sudden as the acid clouds came, they dispersed, leaving nothing but a clear blue sky outside the deserted house...
The photographers continued their luncheon... safe in the shelter of the tattered roof... haha...