With camera in Canberra, walking.

I locked in a few solo days leave and headed south west to the nation’s capital. With no plans beyond visiting the National and Portrait galleries, the rest of my trip was an open book.

This big-sky-country is changing; hipster cafes, bespoke boutiques, gelato bars and microbreweries abound. But some things remain the same and I’m glad for it – there’s a quietness to Canberra that I enjoy. Despite the occasional media scrum with pontificating pollies, it’s still feels like a city not-quite-unpacked.

And the buildings…what a treasure trove for a photographer. From art deco to brutalist, government to grand, you can run the gamete in Canberra without travelling too far. Architecture seems almost compartmentalised, suburban boundaries defined by contrasting building styles, sometimes on opposite sides of the same street. On parliament side of the lake, there’s a gathering of columns, of concrete and stone and bold lines around manicured lawns, relieved only by human movement through the spaces. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy fire burns continuously and brightly in the landscape.

There’s a lot to love about Canberra.