My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”.
Sydney May 2014 (3 images)
And the same goes for candid photography. This woman in serious thought outside a chocolate store really looked like she didn’t know what she was gonna get:
Should I? Shouldn’t I?
Which flavours?
What’s the limit on my credit card?
This was a simple shot. The entrance to the shop is at the entrance to a shopping centre, and immediately behind her. I just walked up to the shop window, and looked at the display. Standing right in front of her I took her photo then walked past into the shopping centre. The value of always having your camera on, prefocussed and ready for that right moment. A distracted subject and lots of background noise helps too.
Receiving Dock
This is a small change from my usual candid photography. There are often times when colour simply works better than black and white in street photography.
Fractured Fairy Tale #53: Years later, Rapunzel retired to Vermont and did not live happily ever after.
Similar to this house, many of the houses in this area have yellow ribbons and signs on their doors and windows saying “save our community” and “not for sale”. The government plans to sell almost 300 public housing properties on Sydney’s harbour-front potentially forcing out residents who have lived there for decades. The sale includes the landmark Sirius building at The Rocks, a concrete brutalist high-rise apartment complex close to the Harbour Bridge, containing 79 units, which is featured in my post, Little Boxes.
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If you missed it, my VIVID Sydney series is completed; a total of 91 photos and 4 videos in 9 posts, including 28 photos in the finale post.
Etcetera Etcetera Etcetera 
Great Captures
Thank you.
I love this new series!
I humbly agree that colour did justice to the texture and colours of the red (?) brick buildings. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks. Yes, the colour of the bricks made me want to do these in colour. 🙂
Great compilation of photos..I can’t stop myself to comment on the two photos :)) Have a great week Draco!
Thanks Indah. I like that most of the photos I put up are open to interpretation. Have a great week ahead too. 🙂
I like your color set 🙂
In the first one the caption is great , reference to Forest gump 😉
It is an art to make street pictures and you excel in that in my opinion.I didn’t know what she was thinking but that the charme of your photo we have a lot of things to say about it and that’s great.
The last one it is like Romeo and Juliet but more like a mother to her son that say “don’t forget the butter and the bread to the supermarket! “.
Nice to see you again and happy to see your pictures.
Have a nice week my dear Draco
Just one more thing (your first name is it Draco or Lignum? or an other name?) 😉
Thank you Sophie. There’s so much that’s interesting in daily life, and I’m glad that I can capture some of it for you. Often there are several interpretations to photos and that’s what is interesting.
Draco is fine. Have a great week ahead. 🙂
Love the first shot. She probably is wondering if there’s any better chocolate shop around – Haighs don’t really do the best chocolate, in my opinion…to flour-ry. The third shot, modern day Rapunzel. Or maybe a dodgy deal going on there. Second photo, I’m not too sure what’s that about.
Welcome back, Dragon 🙂
Thank you kindly. I suspect you’re a Valrhona chocolate girl then – yes, many brands – too title time to try them all. 🙂
I’m sure you could think up a suitable story for all the photos. 🙂
i love chocolate ❤ pretty photos
Who doesn’t? Thank you Leyla.
ah.. sunshine he’s here, u can take a break… 🙂 I’m like la-la-la to see you are back … and with a box of chocolates 🙂 these are great captures, Lignum… you always know how to tell a story… the second capture with those mysterious legs is so clever and original, it’s so inspiring too to try watch out for details… and all in color 🙂 🙂
Thank you very much Alex. I’m glad you could enjoy this box of chocolates and none were too bittersweet this time. 🙂
Have a second cup of coffee for me. 🙂
You are the master of street photgraphy, LD.
Thank you kindly. Street and wabbits are my specialty. 🙂
Wabbit portraiture is my secret specialty, though those photos would look odd on a travel blog…
You wascal. 🙂
You never fail to capture the facial express. This one is cool! …prefocussed and ready for that right moment– sounds really serious 🙂 It’s sad to see houses like these turning into little boxes, and #53 tells the story…
I’m always on the lookout for an interesting face and moment. 🙂
Yes, character and history often means nothing when dollars are involved.
Thank you Amy. 🙂
Keen observation, WoW! 🙂
Three winning images. Rapunzel got her hair done….a bit short, I’m afraid.
As I said, she did not live happily ever after – must be having a hard time to find a good hairdresser. 🙂
I love this post!! You are so gifted!!! 😀
Thank you very much. 🙂
She’s in a world of her own!
As for the development problems on the Rocks, poor people just can’t seem to catch a break can they? They were put there when it was a seedy part of town, then put in to the little boxes after razing a fair number of seedy terraces and now the $$$$ signs of the harbor front are well and truly closing in on them authorities/developers are probably kicking themselves for not having kicked the residents to curb out in to the far western suburbs all those years ago!
Great photos Lignum, full of warmth!
Thank you Patti. I think I could have stood there for 5 seconds and not have been noticed by her. 🙂
Yes, the Rocks has a chequered history and this is the next phase. When dollars are involved, people don’t matter.
Fine capture – looks to me like she is about to give into temptation 🙂
In the end, we always do. 🙂 Thanks.
Lovely candid series Lignum. Wellcome back!
Thank you. Have a great week ahead. 🙂
Thank you. You too. 🙂
🙂
I’m so glad you are back. Frankly, I was not able to summon the will to post anything on my own site until you returned…she said with a totally straight face.
Chocolate-lady’s body language is a wee bit…tight…sort of like your conscience warning you off from the high-calorie treats.
Being a fellow graduate of the Benny Hill School of Straight Faces, thank you. 🙂
Wonderful photos Draco! Lovely architecture in the last photo! It’s really sad people will be forced out of their homes.
Thanks Elina. It’s the same story around the World, just different faces.
Your candids are always a pleasure to see, Lignum!
Thank you Lisa. Have a great week ahead.
The third photo reminds me of photos I’ve seen of New Orleans (I’ve never been). I guess the gov’t wants to clear the property so it can be newly developed? Grr.
Plus they want the money that private developers would be prepared to pay.
Imnsho, she’s thinking “Where is that arsehole who was supposed to meet me here and buy me a box of Belgian chocolates ?!!!”. [grin]
Dunno about the rolladoor: I think I’m too swayed by having one in this building, that I walk past almost every day …
LOVE the semis and LOATHE the ****ing State Govt’s push. Pru Goward’s touch is instant death to whatever department she fronts.
Thank you – you may be right about that first one. I’m walking through the Rocks a bit more recently, before it is lost.
As so much else of our brief history.
Thank all the gods there are people like you around to keep it for us in your images, LD.
Welcome back! Great set of colour images, the woman’s expression in the first really keeps you wondering 🙂
She was completely lost in thought, which made it easy for me. 🙂
Thank you.
The first one is a great candid because I’m sure she would not love the look on her face if she knew that photo were being snapped! And yes the second photo needed to be in color. Perfect! And I love the architecture with those little colored roofs!
Thank you. That’s why I love getting close and unnoticed – it makes for some great candid shots. 🙂
So…remember that whole conversation the other day over on my blog? About how you were going to start taking pictures of buildings? I was sort of thinking that was a joke. Until now.
(Good photos – even the buildings.)
I’ve got backups for when the candid mojo is gone, you know, doors, windows, rust, peeling paint, chairs… and fruit. 🙂
Great candid shot in the context of a candy shop – where we can all imagine what the person is thinking – Nice splash of color too.
Thank you. There’s always a queue in there. 🙂
I would never spend any time wondering about chocolate, so for me the woman is probably seeing another woman passing by and thinking “Pff but of course…if you eat all this chocolate you’ll become like this”…hahaha…Just kidding 🙂 The second photo is very mysterious, you have a really good eye for detect such scenes that most of us would not pay much attention to 🙂
Thank you very much. 🙂 I find when I have the security of my camera in my hand, I see things a lot better. 🙂
Welcome back, nice photos – love #3. Sorry to hear about the public housing sale, a sad story. 😦
Thank you very much. Life goes on …
Brilliant colors, details, and textures!
Very kind of you to say so LD. 🙂 Thank you.
Ah, Haighs. I have a block of macadamia coconut choc on my desk right now.
I hope you don’t mind, but I downloaded the Haigh’s photo and Photoshopped onto it the head of my colleague who introduced me to Haighs. She has similar long hair and body shape, and it works perfectly. 🙂
Having initiated 2 successful DMCA takedown actions, perhaps I am bit more edgy, but as a courtesy, PLEASE ASK FIRST as per my contact and copyright page.
In this instance, I request that if you have reproduced the image online, please include a link to my original post stating this is where the original image was taken from. If it’s just something you have done to give to your friend or to pin up at work, I’m OK with that. I hope you understand.
dark chocolate, ONLY! 🙂 wonderful pix, like usually… even Forrest Gump would be “jealous”! 😉
Ahhh, a chocolate connoisseur. Thank you. 🙂
Great shots, Lignum! I love the Rapunzel 🙂
Thank you very much. 🙂
Mm… I wonder what she is thinking? But sometimes people can look like they’re thinking of something quite strongly and they are just day dreaming. I’ve asked friends and relatives “What were you thinking?” Surprised they replied “Nothing at all!!”
You’ve caught a good moment there, those two in conversation, and how lovely those homes look! I love old buildings with railings, balconies, and tree lined roads my dream home! That sounds horrible to pull all those charming houses down in favour for some very plain apartment blocks. And where will those people go?
There has been a lot of that in the city where I live too, so many new apartments now, and they look horrible. A few years ago when more and more supermarkets sprung up, everyone wondered how on earth they would find enough customers to keep them all open. There were plans – obviously, plans to move a whole mass of people into what has been a relatively small city, and turn it more like London. Not good for the roads though, some of them are too narrow to cope with all those extra cars. The roads always seem to be the last thing they think about, crazy really, without roads, how will anyone arrive, let alone live comfortably?!
Thanks Suzy. She really was quite lost in thought.
Many new apartment blocks are really quite ugly and lack the charm of these old terrace houses. But in this day and age, with land becoming scarce, and population on the rise, they have to build up. I guess it’s the price of progress.
The public housing sale is indeed sad. I remember Vanessa did a documentary on one in Melbourne (similar case) where the residents were interviewed. Sad, very sad! These people have no where to go. I was wondering if the focus was on the shutters until I saw those legs, lol… And to ponder if the credit limit is enough for chocolates, they must be really good! 😀
LOL, in the second photo I saw the legs first, then the shutter. 🙂 Yes those chocolates are nice – but I like so many brands of chocolate. 🙂
More and more, the answer to housing with an increasing population is medium to high density apartment living, but you’d know that from the experience of your own country.
Thank you Sam.
It’s not easy taking candid shots of people. I always have scruples taking photos of people, because a lot of them do not want their photos taken. One of my photography friends is trying hard to make me loose my inhibitions. I can really appreciate your candid shots. They are all very well done!
Thank you. With candid shots, I always stay within the law and just try to document life. I’m also selective about what I will post on the blog.
I like that one “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know…” If I entered a shop with that much chocolate I would probably ask for a part-time job. Then I would get to taste them, slowly and surely without any worries!
LOL – me too! They do offer you a free tasting every time you buy something. Every now and then, someone will say no – I don’t understand why anyone would refuse. 🙂
I can’t say no, ever. I love free tasting…I wish I could get a job as a chocolate taste tester.
LOL. Have a great weekend… eating chocolate. 🙂