Melbourne Candid Series #1081 Presgraves Place

 

Two men walk side by side with grace,
Their steps in sync on Presgrave Place.
A quiet lane, a pause in time,
Where stone beneath recalls old rhyme.

Beside them hums a coffee stand,
Its sign hangs low by weathered hand.
The scent of beans, the hiss of steam,
Drifts gently through a midday dream.

The pavement holds a classic tone,
Each slab a tale, each crack well known.
Their shadows stretch, then slip away,
As if the past walks on today.

No crowd, no rush, just muted sound,
In this small place where peace is found.
A hidden thread in city’s lace—
Two men, one street, one quiet pace.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 837

Melbourne Candid Series #1080 Swanston St

 

Down a classic lane off Swanston Street,
Where echoing steps and cobbles meet,
The ceiling arches, fine and grand,
Like lacework shaped by patient hand.

Soft light filters through the mellow air,
And whispers stir the café chair.
A few souls linger, cups in hand,
In no great rush, no strict demand.

They sip, they talk, or sometimes stare,
At passersby or simply air.
Each moment hangs in quiet grace,
A hidden world, a resting place.

While just beyond, the city swells,
With tram bells, calls, and market yells—
Here peace resides, a lane apart,
Where coffee warms both hands and heart.

Sony A7RV

FE 24mm 1.4 GM

Check out Candid 837

Melbourne Candid Series #1079 Flinders Station

 

Three men strode down Flinders Street,
Their steps in time, their silence neat.
The city hummed, the trams rolled by,
As clouds hung low in Melbourne’s sky.

The middle bore a light-strewn beard,
A gentler face, composed, revered.
Each side, his mates were cleanly bare—
No bristle marked their chins with care.

A curious sight in modern age,
Where stubble speaks of style and stage.
Yet here they walked, a quiet band,
As if from some more tailored land.

No phones in hand, no hurried pace,
Just shadows shifting into place.
And Flinders watched, with windows wide,
As three men crossed from time to tide.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 835 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1078 Flinders Station

 

Flinders Station, shades of grey,
Whispers stories worn away.
Stone and shadow, time stands tall,
Echoes move where footfalls fall.

A young man crosses, sleek and fast,
In monochrome, his moment passed.
Jacket crisp, his gaze ahead,
In silent film, where words are shed.

Past and present, black and white,
Merge and blur in morning light.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 834

Melbourne Candid Series #1077 Flinders Station

 

Two men alike, with mirrored face,
In Flinders’ shadow, find their place.
One upright stands, phone in hand,
The other sits, as if he planned
To mirror thought in silent air,
Twin figures lost in digital stare.

The station looms with urban grace,
Time etched deep in every face.
But to the left—a ghost in frame,
An Italian man, unknown by name.
In black and white, he walks alone,
A traveler through this monochrome.

Three souls, one frame, and time stands still,
Each chasing moments, each their will.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 833

Melbourne Candid Series #1076 Little Flinders Lane - next to St Paul Cathedral

 

By St Paul’s shade, where spires climb high,
A hush beneath the bustling sky—
Two souls in pause, a fleeting scene,
Among the stones and city green.

One stands in shorts, knee-length and neat,
The other rests with crossed-up feet,
A coffee warm within her hand,
As traffic hums across the land.

They talk of nothing, maybe dreams,
While sunlight dances off the beams;
A pocket space the world walks past,
But here, the morning dares to last.

Just off the lane where few things stay,
Two people meet, then drift away.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 832

Melbourne Candid Series #1075 Flinders Station

 

She stands—mid-fifties, style intact,
With sunnies dark and calm exact;
Her gaze turned right, as if to see
A truth beyond what ought to be.

A striped bag hangs with casual grace,
A story woven into place;
She waits, yet walks in stillness deep,
Where city noise forgets to creep.

Behind her, quiet in the sun,
Two figures rest, their waiting done—
One standing firm, one seated low,
As tides of strangers come and go.

The station looms, both grand and grey,
While people pass and drift away.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 831

Melbourne Candid Series #1074 Flinders St

 

He strides in suit with purpose bold,
A voice like brass in morning cold;
His words fly fast, a streaming train,
Across the street, through wind and rain.

In Flinders' shadow, trams glide past,
The crossing blinks, the moment lasts;
An Aussie leans, with coffee slow,
Unbothered by the urgent show.

A tradesman laughs, a banker sips,
As sunlight curls on city lips;
The rush of one, the calm of rest—
Each walking in the way they’re dressed.

So Melbourne hums, both loud and still,
A patchwork bound by common will.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 830 and FACE OFF

Luoyang Candid Series #1073 Luoyang China

 

Parade in Luoyang

In Luoyang’s heart, where ages sleep,
The cobbled streets their secrets keep;
And through the gate of ancient stone,
The echoes stir, the past is shown.

Men in robes of crimson thread,
With phoenix crowns upon their head,
Move proud beneath the lantern light—
A river flowing, bold and bright.

Their footsteps speak of kings and clay,
Of dynasties long passed away;
Yet here they march, in rhythm deep,
As if the land itself would weep.

Old town awakes in silk and song,
And time itself walks slow, and long.

Fujifilm Pro2 

16-55mm f2.8 

Check out Candid 829 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1072 Little Bourke St China Town

 

A chef in white with blade in hand,
Moves swift as silk, precise and grand;
The cleaver sings, a steely hum,
As golden skin and flesh succumb.

The duck lies whole, its journey done,
Crisped by fire, by craft, by sun.
Each stroke reveals a secret lore—
Of banquet halls and emperors’ war.

Steam rises soft in evening air,
Spiced perfume drifting everywhere;
And down the lane, the watchers wait,
Drawn close by scent, by luck, by fate.

On Little Bourke, where old meets new,
Tradition carves the world in two.

Sony A7RV

FE 24mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 828

Melbourne Candid Series #1071 GPO Building (Elizabeth St)

 

A man lies still on marble cold,
Beneath the arches proud and old,
Where GPO in grandeur sleeps
And history its silence keeps.

Beside him, dumped without a name,
A cabinet, once prized, now shame—
Discarded wood, a hollow frame,
Much like the system, just the same.

The papers speak of growth and gain,
Of votes cast high for migrant trains,
To feed the beast, the market’s call,
That builds the towers, lets men fall.

For what is worth in gilded land,
When empty palms outstretch a hand?
And under stone, in shadow’s keep,
A nation buys, but will not weep.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 827

Melbourne Candid Series #1070 Flinders St

 

A man of broad and burdened frame
Did walk where trams and voices came;
His gaze was cast toward the stone,
As though the world were not his own.

Each step he took was slow, profound,
A rhythm lost in city sound;
Yet in his path, a silent grace—
A soul adrift, yet not erased.

The passers moved in hurried flight,
While he remained—a grounded sight;
No glance he raised, no word he said,
But bore the weight of thought instead.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 826

Melbourne Candid Series #1069 Flinders St

 

By Jackson’s wall on Flinders wide,
Where trams do groan and footsteps glide,
A lady walks in coat of grace,
With shaded eyes and steadfast face.

Her trench is tied in noble thread,
Like whispers stitched from times long dead,
Its folds command the morning air,
As though she strolled from Baudelaire.

The city hums, a restless tide,
Where strangers pass and thoughts collide;
Yet still she moves, serene, apart,
A quiet world around her heart.

The crowd flows on in clashing stream,
Each caught within their private dream,
While she, composed in poise and form,
Stands like a calm within the storm.

And over her frame the light does play,
As clouds retreat from break of day;
In monochrome, she seems to be
A ghost of grace and memory.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm 1.8 GM

Check out Candid 825

Melbourne Candid Series #1068 Flinders Station

 

At Flinders Gate where echoes dwell,
And city winds in chorus swell,
Two men of thinning, silvered hair
Conversed, unheeding worldly care.

The crowd swept past in hurried stream,
Like fragments drifting through a dream,
Yet still they stood in solemn thread,
Their words like murmurs to the dead.

Above, the clocks in noble row
Did mark the hours in patient glow;
Their faces lit by morning's lance,
Like watchful eyes in timeless trance.

The sun, half-caught in rising gleam,
Cast angled light—a painter’s beam—
That touched the stone with burnished grace,
And crowned the old gate’s steadfast face.

So moved the day, so moved the street,
With strangers’ lives in brief retreat;
Yet in that light, beneath that dome,
A moment held, as still as home.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 824

Melbourne Candid Series #1067 Flinders St

 

A throng there surged, in restless tide,
Feet like thunder on stone did bide;
The murmur rose with iron will,
Each soul adrift, yet never still.

A dame in garb of sport and stride,
With fuller womb and gleaming pride,
Did lift her hand and greet the air,
A grin she bore—so bold, so fair.

A youth stood firm on pathway wide,
His gaze to glass he did confide,
A world within his palm he found,
While round him spun the earthly sound.

And the folk in scattered view,
Their eyes in compass wild and true—
To east, to west, to low and high,
Their thoughts like birds across the sky.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Melbourne Candid Series #1066 Collins St

 

On Collins way, in shadowed hour,
Came forth a wight in mask of black,
His satchel swayed with silent power,
No kin he hailed, nor turned him back.

A dame drew nigh, in lenses broad,
Like sun-craft glass from days gone pale,
Her visage still, her step unflawed,
She passed as ghost over stony trail.

By roadside bare, the chairs lay strewn—
Cold-forged seats of iron pride;
No soul did claim, nor mark their rune,
Abandoned there, where time doth bide.

So wandered they, beneath sun’s dim light,
Strangers twain in city’s breath,
Each bearing tales veiled from sight,
In silence brushed by life and death.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 822 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1065 Little Collins St

 

Beneath the sunless Melbourne sky, he stood,
A crew-cut crown above his collar’s hood.
In monochrome, the city stilled its breath,
As lens and light danced near the edge of death.

He held a phone—his compass, guiding grace—
Among the stone and steel, he found his place.
Little Collins hummed with hurried feet,
While ghostly echoes marched in blur and beat.

To left, the buildings bowed in warped delight,
Their edges twisted, bending out of sight.
No architect had dreamt such curving lines—
It was the shutter’s spell, not man's designs.

A fastened eye, wide-open to the day,
Had caught the moment men would drift away.
The sensor’s speed, in chasing fleeting form,
Distorted calm, reshaped the city’s norm.

To right, a Coles truck idled, humming low,
Its crimson name now cloaked in shadow's glow.
Behind the man, a tide of life did swell—
A straddled bag, a story yet to tell.

And in this frame of fleeting time and grace,
A world unmeant found stillness in its place.
The camera wept what eyes could never keep:
The dream of day now locked in grayscale sleep.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 821

Melbourne Candid Series #1064 Hosier Lane

 

His face is split by the camera’s frame,
Caught side-on, unnamed, a flicker, a flame.
He walks too fast, a ghost in flight,
Slipping through the edge of sight.

Behind him, Hosier hums and calls,
Graffiti and murals crowd the walls—
A riot of colour, a frozen shout,
As he blurs past, fading out.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 820

Melbourne Candid Series #1063 Little Flinders Lane

 

In front of black glass, five figures stand,
Each lost in thought, no guiding hand.
The street reflects in polished pane,
A ghost of Little Flinders Lane.

One checks a phone with furrowed brow,
Another scans the world somehow.
A third just leans, no place to be,
The fourth stares out, too far to see.

The last stands still, like carved-out stone,
Together near, yet all alone.
The building watches, dark and wide,
A silent witness on the side.

In black and white, the moment stays—
Five quiet lives in their own ways.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 819

Melbourne Candid Series #1062 Little Flinders Lane

 

Off Little Flinders, where shadows lean,
A laneway hums, soft and serene.
A café breathes its easy charm,
Far from the city's roaring harm.

A worker rests, boots thick with dust,
Helmet down, tools left in trust.
At a tall table, phone in hand,
He drifts beyond the workday’s land.

Messages flicker, the world slows down,
Steel and concrete lose their crown.
In Melbourne’s heart, beneath the sky,
A simple moment idles by.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 818

Melbourne Candid Series #1061 King St

 

At Southern Cross, where travelers meet,
The food court hums with clattering feet.
A woman stands, both hands alive,
In the city's restless, breathing hive.

One hand browses, a scrolling stream,
The other chats, a whispered dream.
Two phones glow in the buzzing air,
Threads of a life spun everywhere.

Among the stalls, the noise, the heat,
She weaves her world, so quick, so fleet —
A digital dance in a food court's light,
One soul, two journeys, in plain sight.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 817

Melbourne Candid Series #1060 Swanston St

 

Morning spills on Swanston Street,
Shadows stretch where footsteps meet.
Golden light, a soft ballet,
Across the tiles in quiet display.

Pedestrians pass in restless streams,
Drawn by duties, hopes, and dreams.
An elder moves with practiced grace,
Time etched deep upon his face.

To the right, his steady pace—
A calm within the urban race.
Opposite, young and still, a man,
Hair in a bun, lost in his plan.

They share a stage of tiled stone,
Together, yet each walks alone.
Two eras pause, the morning hums—
And city life in silence drums.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 816

Melbourne Candid Series #1059 Elizabeth St

 

Three youths stroll down Elizabeth Street,
City’s pulse beneath their feet.
Eyes like stars, dreams in flight,
Skyscrapers gleam in midday light.

In Melbourne's heart, so vast, so free,
Asian roots weave silently.
Forty percent and rising still,
A city shaped by every will.

Cultures blend like evening haze,
Languages ripple through alleyways.
Each step a story, proud and bold,
In streets where histories unfold.

So let them walk, and let it be—
A portrait of diversity.
In every face, a world to see,
Melbourne hums in harmony.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 815

Melbourne Candid Series #1058 Russell St

 

On Russell Street where broths arise,
Steam curls beneath the dusky skies.
Each door a portal, warm and wide,
To ramen dreams that boil inside.

A gentleman in sweater thread,
With thoughtful steps and quiet tread,
Descends the lane in twilight's art,
And bites into a humble tart.

Its filling sweet, its crust so fine,
A subtle dance of fruit and brine.
While savory scents around him float,
He savors both—what shops promote,
And sweetness crumbling at his throat.

So moves he through that evening fair,
With tart in hand and ramen air—
A fusion walk of taste and time,
On Russell’s road, half prose, half rhyme.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 814

Melbourne Candid Series #1057 Swanston St

 

He strolls beneath the Southern sun,
An overseas son,
Tinted shades veiling his gaze,
As trams hum past in Swanston haze.

Before the Town Hall's solemn face,
He drifts, a stranger in this place—
Half in thought, half in scene,
Lost between what might have been.

Beside the curb, in floral rows,
The plastic petals primly pose,
Ever-blooming, never real,
Mocking time with cheap appeal.

Tax-fed blossoms, oddly proud,
Rootless beauty drawing crowd—
He walks by, unfazed, alone,
In a city never quite his own.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 813

Melbourne Candid Series #1056 Swanston St

 

On Swanston Street beneath the sky,
A young man scrolls as strangers pass by.
His eyes are fixed on a glowing screen,
Lost in a world that can't be seen.

Behind him stands a quiet gaze,
An Asian man in the city's haze.
He looks ahead with steady grace,
Unmoved by time, in his own place.

A delivery bike rests by the wall,
Wheels stilled in the evening sprawl.
Moments pause in the city’s hum—
Stories unfold, then swiftly come undone.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 812 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1055 Swanston St

 

At Koko’s joint on Swanston Street,
Where sunny skies and warmth greet,
Two ladies work with steady grace,
Preparing joy in every place.

The chocolate melts in tender care,
A rich aroma fills the air.
Australian-owned, their craft refined,
A sweeter moment hard to find.

The sun shines bright on city lanes,
As cocoa swirls through summer’s veins.
In Koko’s hands, the cups are warm,
A perfect blend, a cozy charm.

Beneath the sun, the world moves fast,
But here, in peace, the moment lasts.
Hot chocolate served with care and cheer,
In Melbourne’s heart, it’s crystal clear.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 811

Melbourne Candid Series #1054 Hosier Lane

 

A young man walks with quiet grace,
Uphill he climbs, a steady pace.
Through Hosier Lane, where colors speak,
A canvas worn, where walls are sleek.

His sneakers tap on pavement old,
Among the spray of stories bold.
Each step he takes, a thought untold,
As graffiti whispers secrets cold.

Eyes lost in dreams, not bound by time,
In this wild world, he seeks a rhyme.
The street is loud, yet calm his soul,
A part of art, yet still whole.

His journey’s steep, but in his mind,
The answers wait, the peace he’ll find.
And through the walls, with hues so bright,
He walks, untangling day from night.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 810

Melbourne Candid Series #1053 Swanston St

 

He walks where the city forgets to dream,
Off Swanston’s pulse, in a side-street seam.
An old man carved from dusk and ache,
Thin as memory, too brittle to break.

Beret tilted like a wounded crown,
Eyes cast low, like the heavens frown.
Each step a whisper, each breath a thread,
The living ghost of a life half-dead.

In his hand—O fate!—a paper curled,
Tight as secrets that once rocked the world.
Is it a letter? A map? A name?
A poem never read, or a war’s last flame?

The trams don’t pause for men like this,
Worn to the bone by what they miss.
Yet still he moves, through wind and grime,
Dragging behind the weight of time.

No one sees him—just a blur,
Of beret, bones, and something sirred.
But somewhere deep, the city knows,
He walks with all its buried prose.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 809 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1052 Flinders station

 

Under the dome where the shadows lean,
Flinders hums with a rusted sheen.
Neon flickers, cigarette glow,
Time runs slow where the loners go.

A young cat stands with his hair pulled tight,
Face half-lost in the edge of night.
Strikes a match with a ghost of flair,
Smoke curls up like a whispered dare.

Trains cry low like a city’s sigh,
The world’s gone crooked, he don't ask why.
Just leans on bricks with a heart half broke,
Chasing peace in a drag of smoke.

Beneath that dome, time don’t forgive,
But he lights up like he wants to live.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 808