Melbourne Candid Series #1258 Latrobe St

 

Latrobe Street symposium
no invitations, just footpaths and opinions.
One-man gestures like a traffic light,
another checks his phone for moral support.

Sunglasses judge the weather and the crowd,
backpacks carry urgent nowhere plans.
Someone’s mid–voice note confession,
someone else is lost in retail philosophy.

Banks loom, pigeons eavesdrop,
the tram bell edits every argument.
Here, everyone is briefly important
until the crossing turns green
and the city refreshes the cast.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1104

Melbourne Candid Series #1257 Elizabeth St

 

Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
maps glow with promises of elsewhere,
feet drift like loose pages
through the afternoon rush.

A woman pauses in dark glasses,
city noise folding into her silence.
Backpacks sway, strangers cross,
no one belongs to anyone for long.

Concrete remembers every step,
every almost-meeting of eyes—
and somewhere between crossings
a moment stands still,
watching us pass.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1103

Melbourne Candid Series #1256 Elizabeth St

 

On Elizabeth Street
chrome stones hold the weight of waiting
a young man folded into his phone,
thumbs flickering like city lights.

Footsteps pass without ceremony,
backpacks, boards, quiet destinations.
Traffic hums a restless hymn,
glass towers watching everything.

No one stops
yet in the metal’s cold reflection
the city pauses for a breath,
and loneliness shines like silver.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1103

Melbourne Candid Series #1255 Swanston St

 

Footsteps stitch the afternoon together.
Bags swing with the weight of small decisions.
Eyes drift past one another,
each carrying a private errand of thought.

Glass remembers their reflections for a second,
then lets them go.
The street keeps no names
only the rhythm of people moving on.

Sony A7RV

FE 35mm f1.4 GM

Check out Candid 1102 and FACE OFF

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

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