Melbourne Candid Series #1254 Swanston St

 

Midday leans hard against the pavement,
light spilling through plane trees and glass.
A man stands still inside the crowd,
thumbs scrolling a small, glowing elsewhere.

Ink climbs his arms like remembered roads,
maps of places he has already been.
Behind him, the city queues for a crossing
four lives paused at the same red breath.

Trams hum their low mechanical prayers,
shops flash promises in clean fonts.
A recycling bin waits patiently,
asking nothing, offering order.

Everyone is here,
yet elsewhere
heads bowed to screens, schedules, hunger,
a message arriving late or too soon.

Swanston Street keeps moving without comment.
It has learned this trick:
how to hold thousands of private moments
inside one ordinary afternoon.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1101

Great Ocean Road Series #1253 Gibson Steps

 

The sea is practising its old language,
white syllables breaking at our ankles.
A rock kneels in the shallows,
scarred, patient, older than the word before.

Three figures argue with the tide
one runs, one braces, one watches
their shadows briefly stitched to wet sand
before the water edits them away.

Behind us, the cliffs hold their breath.
Ahead, a lone stack stands offshore,
a sentence left unfinished
after centuries of erosion.

The wind smells of salt and endings.
Laughter is flung like a stone,
skips once, twice,
then disappears into foam.

Here, time is not counted in hours
but in waves touching skin, retreating,
touching again
as if the ocean is reminding us
we are temporary,
and that is the point.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1100

Great Ocean Road Candid Series #1252 Gibson Steps

 

Up the Gibson Steps she climbs,
between cliff and sky,
salt on the wind,
sand still clinging to her shoes.

Each stair lifts her from the roar
of waves gnawing ancient stone,
from the wide, empty beach
to the narrow line of land above.

The ocean keeps speaking below,
white breath against dark rock,
while sunlight sketches shadows
along the weathered rail.

Here, every step is borrowed time
from cliffs that slowly fall to sea;
a quiet ascent through wind and light
on the ragged edge of the world.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1099

Warrnambool Candid Series #1251 Warrnambool

 

Along the Warrnambool path he runs,
not alone but doubled
one heartbeat in his chest,
another sleeping beneath canvas and shade.

The pram wheels hum over concrete seams,
a soft percussion against the ocean wind.
Benches wait like patient witnesses,
watching miles pass in quiet increments.

Grey sky, salt air, clipped coastal grass,
trees bent inland by decades of weather;
here, movement is inheritance,
passed forward with each steady stride.

He pushes into the breeze from Lady Bay,
breath rising, shoulders set,
carrying tomorrow along today’s track
between dunes and distant surf.

No fanfare, no finish line ribbon,
just the rhythm of footfall and rolling wheels,
a parent charting a narrow road of care
through the wide, windswept edge of town.

In Warrnambool’s muted light
the future rides gently ahead of him,
and every metre gained is a promise
kept in motion.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1098

Warrnambool Candid Series #1250 Warrnambool footpath

 

A lone runner cuts the coastal air,
feet drumming a narrow ribbon of path
that threads through salt-bleached grass
and wind-shaped shrubs.

Above, the Warrnambool sky hangs low and pale,
clouds rolling in from the Southern Ocean,
heavy with stories of tides and storms.
The breeze tastes faintly of brine.

Each stride is a small defiance
against the pull of stillness,
arms swinging like pendulums
keeping time with the heartbeat of the town.

Behind him, the world softens into blur:
picnic tables, distant figures,
trees leaning inland from years of gales.
Ahead, the track curves out of sight.

Gulls wheel somewhere beyond the dunes,
and the unseen surf keeps its thunderous rhythm.
He runs not from, but into the wind,
into the grey light, into the day.

On this edge of land and water,
movement is warmth, breath is steam,
and the body becomes a compass
pointing forward along the coast.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1097

Warrnambool Candid Series #1249 Warrnambool

 

On a Warrnambool path, the day walks with him
measured steps, eyes forward, breath steady.
The line of the road holds its quiet promise,
scrub and fence keeping counsel on either side.

Others drift behind like passing thoughts,
softened by distance, uninsistent.
Here, progress is simple:
one foot, then another, into the open air.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1096

Warrnambool Candid Series #1248 Warrnambool Footpath

 

Along the Warrnambool path they move together,
wind tugging at hair, bushes closing in like witnesses.
A pram rolls softly over painted lines,
holding a small, unseen future between them.

One yawns the weight of tired days,
the other listens to the rhythm of steps.
Between scrub and sky,
ordinary love keeps walking forward.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1095

Warrnambool Candid Series #1247 Warrnambool

 

Along the Warrnambool path he walks,
where scrub leans in and the coast breathes quietly.
A bench waits, weathered and patient,
the road unspooling into soft distance.

Grey light settles on hoodie and gravel,
on footsteps measured, unhurried.
Here, between bush and sea,
time slows enough to notice the ordinary grace of moving forward.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1094 and FACE OFF

Warrnambool Candid Series #1246 Warrnambool footpath

 

Along the Warrnambool coastal path
a rider leans into the quiet,
rubber humming against pale stone,
breath measured, eyes ahead.

Walkers drift behind like memories,
shrubs holding the wind in check.
Between sea air and steady ground,
the day moves on, unannounced.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1093

Melbourne Candid Series #1245 Swan St

 

On Swan Street, night leans in close,
cups clink like quiet punctuation.
Striped cotton, dark curls, a half-finished sentence
held between fork and thought.

Faces tilt toward one another,
words moving faster than the traffic glow.
Around them, the city keeps eating and talking,
while this small table holds
the whole weight of the evening.

Sony A7RV

FE 16mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1091

Melbourne Candid Series #1244 Swan St

 

Behind the bar on Swan Street,
he pours silence as carefully as gin,
bottles lining the wall like held breaths.
Fruit waits, knives sleep,
and the night leans in
listening for what will be said next.

Sony A7RV

FE 24mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1090

Melbourne Candid Series #1243 Swan St

 

On Swan Street, night loosens its tie
glasses clink, voices lean close to light,
men bend over bowls and small talk,
while footsteps pass like brief commas.
The city breathes between tables,
and dinner lingers longer than the hour.

Sony A7RV

FE 16mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1089

Melbourne Candid Series #1242 Brunswick St

 

On Brunswick Street, beneath a borrowed star,
A narrow bar keeps vigil through the day;
Lantern light and foreign letters are
Set gently where the southern shadows play.

The barman stands, intent, in measured grace,
Hands learning silence more than spoken art;
Each bottle waits, each glass retains its place,
As evening gathers slowly at the heart.

Sony A7RV

FE 24mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1088

Melbourne Candid Series #1241 Brunswick St

 

Along Brunswick Street, where evening settles low,
A window frames the hush of shared delight:
Three voices lean, like candles’ gentle glow,
Their words poured slow as amber into night.

Glass meets the bar; reflections fold and turn,
Inside and out exchange a fleeting truth
That talk, once kindled, asks no more than time
To make a moment whole, and briefly youth.

Sony A7RV

FE 24mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1087

Melbourne Candid Series #1240 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath the canvas eaves of a village fair,

Where pine and stone remember older ways,
A stall stands brief as morning mountain air,
Yet warm with talk that binds the passing days.

The vendor leans, his sleeves rolled to the bone,
Steam ghosting up like breath in winter rain;
His hands have learned the grammar of the stone,
The iron plate, the grain, the patient flame.

Across the counter, finger poised mid-speech,
A traveler weighs desire against his coin;
Between them hangs a moment they both reach
Not trade alone, but something more benign.

Black ink of signs, like banners brushed with care,
Name humble joys: sweet corn, cheese, bread, and heat;
Such words, once spoken, season village air
Where hunger learns that waiting can be sweet.

No bell is rung, no temple drum is struck,
Yet here the everyday reveals its art:
Two lives converge by chance, by work, by luck,
And part again, each carrying the other’s part.

So markets bloom and fade like cherry trees,
Petals of talk and labor briefly sown;
In such small scenes, the village finds its peace
The world made whole where simple hands are shown.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 1086

Melbourne Candid Series #1239 Flagstaff Garden

 

A chap bears twin barrels, water dark and deep,
Across the street’s long breath he makes his keep.
Flagstaff Garden hums with measured tread,
Where time walks slow and leaves bow overhead.

The iron hoops sing softly as they sway,
A liquid weight that steadies night and day.
Each step a pact with balance, hand and spine,
A craft rehearsed where patience draws the line.

Around him carts and voices surge and part,
Yet stillness gathers in his quiet art.
So moves he on, through Melbourne’s shaded green,
A fleeting scene, yet old as what has been.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1085

Melbourne Candid Series #1238 Flagstaff Garden

 

On Flagstaff grass they gather, hushed and near,
With painted smiles that borrow from the year;
Small skulls in chalk, bright flowers pinned in hair,
A gentle masquerade of grief and care.

The children sit where shadows learn to play,
Their laughter stitched to rites once far away;
Thus life and death in borrowed faces meet,
And innocence makes even endings sweet.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1084 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1237 Flagstaff Garden

 

Along Flagstaff’s lawns, where noonlight drifts and stays,
They walk in quiet, measuring their days.
A carton cradled like a modest truth,
Greens and grain—the earnest fare of youth.

Her sleeve is folded inward, thought held fast,
As if the moment asks to not move past;
He studies leaves and flavors, small, precise,
As though the world were legible in rice.

Behind them trails the blur of other lives,
The practiced solitude the city drives;
Yet here, two shadows overlap the grass,
A private council as the minutes pass.

Garden paths, you learn this daily art:
That love begins in sharing, not in heart
In reading menus, walking side by side,
And letting simple things become the guide.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1083

Melbourne Candid Series1236 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath the elms of Flagstaff’s patient green,

Where tramlines sigh and lunch-hour crowds convene,
A moment loosens from the grip of time
Salt, laughter, steam, a pause before the chime.

A paper-wrapped indulgence, raised in jest,
Breaks earnest hunger, breaks the day’s arrest;
His shoulders lean toward warmth not born of sun,
Her smile replies before the words are done.

Around them flows the city’s muted stream,
Footsteps and futures blur like half-formed dream;
Yet here, between the bite and shared regard,
The world grows kind, if only off its guard.

O Flagstaff lawns, you keep such truths in trust:
That joy is brief, informal, and just.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 

Check out Candid 1082

Melbourne Candid Series #1235 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff Gardens, beneath the elms' old shade,
Three wanderers in skull-paint and flower-crown parade
A grinning youth with petals for his hair,
A lady one-shouldered, dark and debonair,
And one whose smile breaks wide through painted bone,
All laughing where the living meet the known.They tread the path of marigold and mirth,
Where death is costumed lightly on the earth
No terror here, but jest and fond embrace,
A memento mori worn with easy grace.O fleeting trio, bright against the green,
You teach the hour its truth: to live, be seen,
And greet the end as friend, not foe unseen.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1081 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1234 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff’s hush, with painted grace,
A mother bends, the child looks down;
Their hands entwine in measured space,
Where life and death wear floral crown.

Through borrowed masks and gentle art,
Love teaches how the steps begin;
A quiet rite, passed heart to heart,
Where memory holds what time wears thin.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1080

Melbourne Candid Series #1233 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath the plane trees’ winter-bare refrain,
He walks where Flagstaff keeps its quiet trust;
A fleeting thought, a pause between the strain,
While time drifts past like leaves dissolved to dust.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1079

Melbourne Candid Series #1232 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath Flagstaff’s trees, where old paths bend,
A painted face turns, half-life, half-end.
Bone-white grin and living eyes,
The city pauses; a moment lies.

Steel rails, canvas shade, a borrowed skull
Mirth and mortality share the lull.
Among the leaves and passing sound,
Death is dressed, and life walks round.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1078

Melbourne Candid Series #1231 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff’s hush of passing days,
He moves mid-step, half flesh, half sign,
A skull drawn light upon his face,
Death borrowing a mortal line.

A crown of blooms, a lifted phone,
The living world still calls him near;
Between the laugh, the bone, the tone,
He walks where joy and ending peer.

So gardens keep what crowds forget:
That life, well held, is brief, complete
A dance inked once, not finished yet,
Then gone, like footprints in the street.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 1077

Melbourne Candid Series 1230 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath bare trees of Flagstaff green,
They stand in chalked and petalled white,
Small skulls that smile where life is seen,
Soft laughter stitched to borrowed night.

Flowers crown both young and old,
Bone and blossom intertwined;
In painted death, the living hold
A gentler truth: we leave, we shine.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 1076

Melbourne Candid Series #1229 Lonsdale St

 

At Lonsdale’s light he waits, wheels held fast,
A small, still figure in the city’s flow;
Engines hum, impatient shadows pass,
While time itself turns amber, then lets go.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1075

Melbourne Candid Series #1228 Lonsdale St

 

On Lonsdale Street he pauses, black-clad and bowed,
A silvered arch of hat against the day;
Bone-stitched trousers whisper as he goes,
Steel wheels mark time where traffic has its say.

Between the rush, he stands—old ritual kept—
A lone, dark note the city has not swept.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1074 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1227 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff Garden’s tempered light
He turns, a shield against the air;
Feathers arc like frozen flame,
And silence gathers at his stance.

The city blurs to watching eyes,
Its hours loosen, briefly stilled.
Old rhythms press through modern ground,
And grass remembers older feet.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

check out Candid 1073

Melbourne Candid Series #1226 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff Garden’s measured green,
He stands where time has folded thin:
A shield of feathers, round and bright,
A painted face of dusk and bone.

The crowd recedes to murmured breath,
As ancient steps reclaim the ground.
Between the trees, the city pauses
And listens to a deeper sound.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1072

Melbourne Candid Series #1225 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath Flagstaff’s elms, where the city exhales,
A drumbeat rises through clipped lawns and stone.
Feathers tremble against the patient air,
Shells speak softly with each lifted step.

One foot strikes earth, the other greets the sky
A brief defiance held in muscle and breath.
Painted faces carry borrowed suns,
Old gods walking between lunch hours and trams.

The crowd stands still, as if remembering
That this ground once answered only ceremony.
For a moment, time loosens its modern grip,
And Flagstaff Garden listens, wholly awake.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1071

Melbourne Candid Series #1224 Flagstaff Garden

 

In Flagstaff Garden’s quiet, watched by stone and leaf,
They stand in measured ranks, adorned with borrowed grief.
Feathers pierce the daylight, masks of ash and bone,
Ancient rites rehearsed where city seeds are sown.

A drumbeat lingers faintly on the Melbourne air
Past and present pausing, solemn, brief, and fair.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1070

Melbourne Candid Series #1223 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath Flagstaff’s plane trees, in a borrowed age,
They move like echoes freed from stone and page.
Feathers crown the brow, bone-white masks declare
The dance of life with death entwined in air.

Drums speak softly where the grass is worn,
Old worlds awaken in the Melbourne morn.
Between the paths, where past and present meet,
Ritual breathes again on urban feet.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1069

Melbourne Candid Series #1222 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath the elms of Flagstaff’s quiet green,
Where iron paths and city breath convene,
A humble cart stands fast against the day,
Its banner worn, yet bold in painted say.

Here hands move swift in practised, patient art,
As if the world were measured by each part:
The folded board, the steam, the passing plate,
The pause between the hunger and its sate.

No throne nor marble marks this common ground,
Yet here the pulse of living may be found.
A coin, a glance, a nod—no words are sworn,
But something older than the park is born.

The vendors stand like figures in a frieze,
Intent, composed, untouched by passing breeze;
While waiting souls, half-lit by noon’s mild glare,
Lift hands as though in secular prayer.

O Flagstaff lawn, you cradle more than rest:
Within your shade, the world is briefly blessed
Where labour, need, and simple grace align,
And daily bread is shared like sacred wine.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1068

Melbourne Candid Series #1221 Flagstaff Garden

 

Along the gravel paths of Flagstaff’s green,
Where summer fairs dissolve in muted sound,
He walks alone, though never quite unseen,
A fixed point while the crowd moves all around.

Dark lenses guard his eyes from open view,
As if the day were brighter than it seems;
His gaze turned inward, thoughtful, stern, and true,
Attentive more to weight than passing gleams.
The checked shirt hangs with workman’s quiet ease,
Plain cloth that knows the language of the day,
Unbothered by the tents, the hum, the breeze,
Or idle talk that drifts and slips away.

Behind him, faces blur to softened shade,
Their gestures half-considered, quickly spent;
They come and go like marks the feet have made
Upon the grass, erased as soon as meant.
Yet he remains, a figure set in pause,
As though the moment asked him to endure
A witness to no spectacle or cause,
But simply to the act of being sure.

Thus Flagstaff Gardens keeps him in its care
Not hero, nor observer raised above,
But one still centre in the breathing air,
Where crowds pass on, and solitude holds love.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1067

Melbourne Candid Series #1220 Flagstaff Garden

 

Within Flagstaff Gardens’ measured green repose,
Where time slows softly on the open lawn,
A lone man stands, while all around him flows
The idle hour of an unhurried dawn.

He lifts his lens as though it were an eye
More patient than the pulse within his hand,
To catch the fleeting truth that passes by
And bind it fast at his quiet command.
The crowd recedes; the background hums and blurs
A distant murmur, casual and kind
While through the glass the present moment stirs,
Briefly obedient to the watching mind.

Behind him, seated low upon the grass,
Two figures share their bread, their drink, their pause;
They speak in gestures moments let slip past,
Unaware they serve a subtler cause.
Their ease becomes the counterpoint of art,
The stillness framing movement, thought, and aim;
For life, unposed, plays always its own part,
And needs no witness calling out its name.

Thus Flagstaff Gardens holds them all at once:
The watcher, watched, the careless, and the keen
A living page where nothing is announced,
Yet everything is quietly seen.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1067

Melbourne Candid Series #1219 Flagstaff Garden

 

Beneath the elms of Flagstaff’s quiet green,
Where Melbourne’s towers soften into air,
They stand—half flesh, half legend—newly seen,
With painted bone and borrowed mortal stare.

The woman wears her roses like a crown,
Dark petals braided through her careful hair;
Her eyes, ringed deep as though the grave looked out,
Hold life intact, alert, and fully there.
Lace sleeves recall a gentler, older age,
When mourning dressed in patience, not in haste,
And grief was stitched with ritual and grace,
Not hidden, hurried, or politely faced.

Beside her stands the man in hat and beard,
His smile a crease time cannot quite erase;
White shirt, black brace, a bloom upon his chest
A gardener of memory and place.
His painted skull does not deny the heart,
But frames it, like a memento made to teach
That love survives the narrowing of breath,
And meaning outlives what words can ever reach.

Before them, small as any human hope,
A child in bones that merely play at death
Licks sugar from a stick, amused, unafraid,
Proving joy needs neither depth nor breadth.
The skull upon his face is only art;
His living pulse corrects the borrowed lie.
Here death is costume, not a closing door,
A story told so life may answer: why.

And Flagstaff Gardens listens, old and kind
Once burial ground, now cradle of the day
Holding the past and present intertwined,
Where ghosts and children learn to share the way.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1066 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1218 Swanston St

 

On Swanston Street, she walks
through a river of passing hours,
headphones sealing a private weather
against the city’s noise.

The traffic lights blink and wait,
faces blur into motion,
but she moves with a measured resolve,
eyes forward, unborrowed.

An illustrated gaze stares from her jumper,
another world layered over this one—
ink and fabric carrying a story
the street will never fully hear.

Wind lifts her hair like a half-spoken thought,
boots meet pavement in quiet defiance,
and for a moment the city bends around her,
letting her pass,
untranslated.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 1065