Brisbane Candid Series #1231 Noosa Esplanade

 

A mangrove stands where sand meets sea,
Its roots like fingers in a briny plea.
Alone it rises, steadfast, still,
Bathed in sun, kissed by wind’s will.

Along the shore, a lone soul treads,
Where water shimmers and daylight spreads.
Footprints vanish in the tide’s embrace,
Yet the mangrove holds its quiet grace.

Salt and sky in a gentle dance,
Time slows here, caught in a trance.
One tree, one walker, the ocean’s hymn,
A fleeting world both vast and dim.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 987

Sunshine Coast Candid Series #1230 Noosa Esplanade

 

Along Noosa’s shore, where sunlight spills,
A young man lingers by the sea’s soft thrills.
Bathers clinging to his sunlit skin,
He lifts his lens, the world pulled in.

Waves like silver sighs beneath the sky,
Clouds drift lazily, the gulls wheel high.
Each shimmer, each ripple, each glinting crest,
He captures the ocean within his chest.

The wind hums secrets through salt-sweet hair,
A fleeting moment, a quiet prayer.
One gentle click, and time holds its breath,
The sea, the sun, the boy—forever left.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 986

Brisbane Candid Series #1229 Glass House Mountain Queensland

 

Morning mist drapes the ancient spires,
stone sentinels born of fire’s desires.
A young hiker stands where the ridges gleam,
map in hand, eyes lost in dream.

High on the tower, the timber hums,
as wind through the railing softly drums.
He faces the mountains, vast and far,
each peak a memory, each scar a star.

The paper flutters — a compass, a guide,
his heart beats steady with the morning tide.
Below, the forest breathes in green,
above, the sky burns bright and clean.

He folds his map, the silence calls,
the world below, the range enthralls.
The Glass House waits, both stern and kind,
a mountain path, a state of mind.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 985

Brisbane Candid Series #1228 Donna Chang Restaurant

 

Velvet seats and lanterned glow,
soft jade light where whispers flow.
Three men seated, calm, apart,
each with a meal, a private art.

Porcelain gleams beneath warm steam,
ginger and wine in a fragrant dream.
No words exchanged, yet all are near,
bound by the comfort of taste and cheer.

Outside, the river hums through glass,
time drifts slow, like clouds that pass.
Chopsticks pause — a fleeting grace,
three stories shared in a silent space.

Sony A7RV

Laowa 9mm f5.6

Check out Candid 984

Melbourne Candid Series #1227 St Kilda Esplanade

 

By the beach, where the pale waves sigh,
morning drapes gold across the sky.
A café hums with gentle grace,
steam curls upward, soft as lace.

Patrons linger with toast and talk,
sunlight spilling where shadows walk.
Cups clink lightly, the baybird calls,
salt and coffee perfume the walls.

The breeze tastes sweet with sea and day,
the city still yawns a mile away.
Here, at the edge where the tides begin,
life feels slower — soft, within.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 983 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1226 St Kilda Esplanade

 

A chap in a faded tee, long hair untamed,
leans on a bench where the sea is framed.
Phone to his ear, his laughter drifts,
between gull cries and the tramline’s shifts.

Opposite, the ice cream shop hums and gleams,
a melody of cones and seaside dreams.
Vanilla winds and ocean air entwine,
sweet and salt in the afternoon shine.

Behind him, the bay holds a silver hue,
and time, for a moment, forgets to move.
Only his voice, soft and far away,
threads through the heart of a Melbourne day.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 982

Sea Lake Candid Series #1225 Lake Tyrrell

 

At dusk, the salt lake breathes a hush,
its skin a mirror to the fading blush.
A lone silhouette stands between worlds 
earth below, heaven unfurled.

No ripple breaks the boundless glass,
where sky and soul in stillness pass.
The wind forgets its ancient song,
time itself lingers, lingering long.

One step — and stars bloom at the feet,
two realms of silence gently meet.
Lake Tyrrell holds the dream entire,
a mortal shadow, the sky’s desire.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Check out Candid 979

Melbourne Candid Series #1224 Kisume Restaurant Chef's table

Inside Kisumé’s hush of glass and gleam,
The counter hums—a river’s dream.
The chef, back turned, composes grace,
Steel and sea in quiet embrace.

Behind him, bent in focused line,
The sous-chef hunts the missing knife
A slender blade, a slip of light,
That cuts through ritual, art, and life.

Steam rises soft, the lamps are low,
Time folds beneath the sushi’s glow.
Two figures move, as breath to flame
In wordless craft, they share one name.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 978

Melbourne Candid Series #1223 Collins Arcade

 

In the hush of Collins Arcade,
where marble echoes cradle each footfall,
an Asian woman bends slightly forward,
black-rimmed glasses glinting
like a poet’s pause between lines.

She listens — not merely with the ear
but with the whole gravity of her being,
as if the customer’s halting words
were a fragile bird she dared not startle.

Light pools on her sleeve,
the scent of roasted beans and rain-damp stone
folds into the moment 
and the city, briefly, forgets its noise.

In her attentive stillness
there is something luminous,
the quiet art of presence 
a listening so complete
it becomes its own kind of grace.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 977

Melbourne Candid Series #1222 Elizabeth St

 

Off Elizabeth Street, the air hums with noon 
trams rattle, pigeons scatter crumbs.
A man stands easy, jumper looped around his neck,
glasses glinting like a second sun.

He props one foot upon the bench,
beside a quiet patron lost in thought,
their worlds just inches apart 
one resting, one mid-motion.

The city flows around them 
coffee scent, sirens, street chatter 
and for a breath,
the scene becomes a sketch of Melbourne:
casual, alive,
where strangers share a bench
and time forgets to hurry.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 976

Melbourne Candid Series #1221 De Graves St

 

A wicked smile flickers 
he wipes his lips with the back of his hand,
crumbs falling like careless words.
The mullet catches light,
a halo of defiance
under the café’s striped awning.

He leans back in his chair,
street laughter spilling past,
steam rising from cups and grates alike.
There’s swagger in his stillness,
a kind of rough poetry
in the way he owns the moment 
De Graves Street watching,
and he, unbothered,
watching it back.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 975 and FACE OFF

Melbourne Candid Series #1220 De Graves St

 

De Graves Street hums its midday tune 
cups clink, trams sigh somewhere near.
A woman in sunglasses leans by the café wall,
sunlight glinting on her hair.

She lifts a sandwich, slow and certain,
each bite a small rebellion
against the rush of office hours,
against the turning world.

Around her, footsteps weave and scatter,
voices blur like jazz in the lane,
but she is still —
a quiet rhythm in the city’s heart,
chewing, tasting,
letting Melbourne move around her.

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Check out Candid 974

Melbourne Candid Series #1219 Little Flinders Lane

 

Off Little Flinders Lane,
they walk three abreast 
mother, son, and older brother 
wrapped in the black and white breath
of Collingwood.

The scarves sway like banners
in the thin October wind,
threads whispering
of victories, losses,
and Saturday roars from the ‘G’.

The boy’s grin gleams under his cap,
his brother taller, already
half a man,
and their mum keeps pace,
steady and proud,
her laughter folding
into the hum of the city.

Around them, trams sigh,
coffee steams,
laneway murals flare and fade 
but their colours stay true,
black and white,
heart and tribe,
Collingwood forever.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 973

Melbourn Candid Series #1218 De Graves St

 

Two young blokes off Degraves Street,
where shadows curl and sunlight meet
one wears his shades upon his hair,
the other’s brim cuts morning air.

Their laughter drifts through coffee steam,
the lane alive, a waking dream;
tram bells sigh beyond the stone,
yet here they make the world their own.

So light their talk, so bright their ease,
the city hums in minor keys;
youth’s brief fire, unbound, complete
two young blokes off Degraves Street.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 972

Melbourne Candid Series #1217 De Graves St

 

In Degraves Street’s narrow hum,
where coffee steam and footsteps drum,
a couple waits before the door
of Jungle Juice — their quiet shore.

They sit, the morning half-awake,
as trams above the city shake;
two figures queue in dappled light,
their laughter blending with the bright.

The scent of citrus, mango air,
the hiss of blenders everywhere;
time slows—an amber, sunlit pause,
between the rush and urban cause.

The couple leans, their hands entwined,
as summer drifts through Melbourne’s mind.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 971

Melbourne Candid Series #1216 Swanston St

The couple sat on stools that day,
by a café on Little Lonsdale’s way
no hurry in their gentle gaze,
just sunlight caught in Melbourne haze.

Both wore straw hats, soft and wide,
their brims like halos side by side;
steam rose lazy from their cups,
while city life kept filling up.

People passed in hurried streams,
heels clicking through their weekday dreams;
but in that lane, time bent and stayed
a still life softly overlaid.

Two straw hats, a quiet grace,
the world went on—they kept their place.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 970

Melbourne Candid Series #1215 Swanston St

 

Bare-chested beneath the awning’s shade,
he sits with his guitar, half in dream—
the strings sigh softly, a golden seam
stitched through the city’s passing parade.

Rain-slick pavement mirrors light,
trams glide by in a silver blur;
his voice, low ember, seems to stir
the air between the day and night.

People pass—umbrellas bloom,
phones glow pale in drifting hands;
yet still he plays, as though he stands
in some cathedral made of gloom.

Unnoticed saint of Swanston Street,
his song spills warm where cold winds meet.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check Out Candid 969

Melbourne Candid Series #1214 Centre Place

 

A sign reads shops,
letters simple, pointing nowhere
and everywhere.

Beneath it,
three men in baseball caps
move down the narrow corridor,
their footsteps a rhythm
on stone that remembers
a thousand mornings.

Shadows bend along the walls,
lanterns blink,
the lane breathes with coffee and rain,
while the word shops
hangs above them,
a small command,
a promise of doors opening
into the heart of Melbourne.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 968

Melbourne Candid Series #1213 Centre Place Melbourne

 

In Centre Place,
where voices echo against brick and steam,
a young man in glasses
leans forward, pen ready.

Menus curl in his hands,
patrons lift their eyes—
a question, a smile,
the scratch of order on a page.

Around him,
cups clink, chairs scrape,
the lane hums with roasting beans
and the shuffle of passing coats.

He gathers their words
like coins in a till,
steady,
while the city
keeps breathing past the doorway.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 967

Melbourne Candid Series #1212 Centre Place

 

A misted late morning,
lanes breathe with coffee steam,
shoes scuff cobblestones,
voices fold into the narrow air.

She stands in a sports bra,
light striking her shoulders,
beside him—
a man with a T-shirt,
slurpee in hand,
both gazing outward.

Crowds press past windows,
shops hum with colour and clatter,
and for a moment
they are still,
two figures
watching the current
of Melbourne flow around them.

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Check out Candid 966