Cannot tell you how great it feels to get out and about with my camera for no other purpose than to capture street style images that I love shooting. As I wrote in my end of year blog, I had a busy December of 2018 and as a result, I didn’t get out and do much leisure photography at all. Granted I did a couple of paid gigs but it is not the same. There is little to be had in structured shoots. I love them – don’t get me wrong. But nothing beats getting out and pursuing your hobby and passion. And so that brings to me today’s blog.

You will no doubt have read of my passion for my home town of Melbourne. It is one of the worlds most liveable cities after all. It has such a festival style focus on putting on events all year round. From sports to arts and markets to music. It never stops. And that often makes fantastic opportunity for photographic journeys. Now hold that thought. You will also have no doubt read of my love of visiting Melbourne’s markets. They inspire Melbourne’s love of food and eatery culture. Now combine those two things and I am in heaven.

In the past, I have written of my travels to Queen Victoria Market and in particular, the night markets that now seem to be a year-round event. I visited the Summer Night Market almost two years ago and you can read about that night here. And then more recently I visited the Hawker 88 Night Market and you can read about this here. It seems that the summer night market has only grown in size and popularity. I spent a few hours there last night and was amazed at the number of food stalls that were open for the event. Add to this several performance areas, several bars and a huge selection of craft vendors.

The highlight for everyone in attendance was the food on offer. Street food from every corner of the globe was available in one form or another. And even though I only arrived at 6pm – only an hour after it opened – there were huge lines in front of every stand. Not that this was a problem really. As every stand had lots of staff both preparing and serving food in a fast and obviously well practised. This enourmous sheds were filled with the smoke and smells of cooking meats and vegetables. And the place was packed. Several sheds and several open-air areas were all jam-packed with people.

In terms of gear, I was carrying my Fujifilm X-T3 with a wrist strap as I always do. Most of the shots I took were with the XF23mmF2. This is a cracker of a compact semi-wide lens andpretty much my go to lens for most occassions. I also took with me the XF50mmF2. Whilst I usually dont use this for street work I wanted to push myself a little and use this lens more. A number of shots were taken with this lens and I just love the way that it compressed the image and the frame. I had this grear plus a spare battery – not that I needed it – in a Crumpler photo cube inside my Crumpler squid backpack. Very simple and lightweight and the sore of kit I want to take with me to Japan in May. Only 140 days to go! Sigh. Happy shooting.