Cliff Docherty Photography

12/01/2025

I love this.

Fabriccio and Lucía run the only fully equipped film lab in Central America

17/11/2024

When I was very small, in the 1960's, there were still some bomb sites left scattered around London. I remember my mum showing me a few, soon to be built on with those 1960's boxy houses and and tower blocks that's we've spent a fortune tearing down in the 21st century. So there's not too many signs of World War 2 left now, apart from memorials and carefully preserved pockets to serve as a reminder like the shrapnel scarred walls of the Tate Britain and the viaduct opposite Southwark Station which bears the scars of the doodlebug which flattened the boxing ring which stood adjacent. And then there's this, in suburban Kingsbury/Hendon alongside the Brent Reservoir where I used to live, the reservoir more commonly known as the Welsh Harp. This pond which sits oddly right next to the huge lake prompts the question, why is there a pond literally only two feet away from the water's edge? The answer being that it's actually a bomb crater that some Luftwaffe pilot left behind after dispatching his cargo on an unsuspecting suburb, Nature soon took over and now its a tree-fringed pond with a healthy population of frogs and newts. Man destroys, and nature creates.

17/11/2024

The Christmas season is getting underway here in London (OK I know its only mid-November but hey, its been a challenging year for everyone). Recently I upgraded to a Canon R6 MkII and wanted to put it through its paces in a tricky lighting environment, so what better than a light show? These were taken at Kew Gardens Christmas installation last night. If you can get tickets, definitely worth the trip.

20/10/2024

I've been reviewing some of my archive and pulled together I took of one of London's two financial districts, Canary Wharf which is home to businesses like Barclays, Citi Group, HSBC and Fitch, but unlike its counterpart in the City of London is also a residential district. Built on disused docklands, the 40 hectares (97 acres) of former industrial wasteland has transformed since the 80's and is a photographer's dream. Behind these gleaming spires you'll still find conservation areas containing 17th and 18th homes and an old riverside tavern reputed to be where celebrated naval leader Horatio Nelson met his wife, Lady Hamilton while his ship was being refitted. Anyhow, these pictures were taken in March 2012 on a bitterly cold day and early evening, but the light was perfect for people like me and I was far from the only photographer out that day. All pics are strictly non-commercial, not for sale or licence, so if you're a bank or a freeholder please don't set your lawyers on me. It wouldn't be the first time. Purely a hobbyist's pleasure and an advert for your district.

17/10/2024

Last weekend the Galeon Andalucía sailed up the Thames 400 years after the Spanish armada was defeated and I took the time to go down to the dock to have a look and shoot some pics with one of my vintage cameras, in this case a 1998 Canon IX7 SLR which took not 35mm film, but APS film cartridges which are now obsolete. There's a thriving market in expired film though and some, like Kodak Advantix, have not fared at all well, usually resulting in wild colour casts. Fuji Nexia and Agfa Star though have generally held their colour well, if somewhat less sensitive over time. I have a stash of 20 year old Fuji Nexia which I keep for special occasions (and good light) and this seemed like one of them. Shot two stops over-exposure with a 24-105mm L series lens attached.

All pics copyright.

12/10/2024

My good friend Christine Hawthorne sent me this link of a guy taking pics with a vintage camera from the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. I love this. I have a small collection of vintage cameras and my oldest dates from 1912, so its 112 years old and still works, though I've got to put in for repair to replace the leather bellows which has finally given up after 100 years of being folded and unfolded. Not a bad innings, as they say. I've put an example taken with my camera in the comments.
https://fb.watch/va8KI4RNcJ/

10/10/2024

Sometimes I can't decide whether to retain a picture in colour or work with mono tones. I tend to lean towards mono more these days but sometimes you takes a picture that works well in completely different ways depending on whether you leave it be or convert it. This is one of them, a busker in Melbourne's famous Laneways taken in one of the more gloomy alleys despite the strong Australian sunshine. The colours still jump out of the picture, and yet the mono shot seems to add mood and pathos. I can't decide which one I like best.

08/10/2024

Just put the finishing touches to my pictures from Alina's fashion show last week and very pleased at the results. You can see her fabulous designs here, along with her workshop students work:

https://cliffdocherty.com/commissions-silent-elegance-deaf-fashion-2024

28/09/2024

Excited to be invited to shoot Devine Couture London's show today for London Deaf Fashion Week.

28/09/2024

Excited to be invited to shoot London Deaf Fashion Week and heading into town for Divine Couture's runway show this afternoon. What a great platform (literally) to show off the incredible creative talents of D/deaf people.

21/09/2024

One of my things is to play around with vintage cameras, and my favourite one is the Kodak Brownie Flash IV which was a hand me down from my late dad when I was 8, and originally bought by him in 1957 as a top of the range model, if you can say such a thing about a humble box camera. Its rather nice, finished with pigskin with brass fittings and takes 620 film, which provided you can get the spools, you can fit 120 film onto it and keep using the camera. You get 8 huge negatives to a roll.

This pics come from a recent trip to England's Lake District and make the most of the large negative size.

17/09/2024

I've dumped Twitter/X because in honesty its become a cesspit of unmoderated hate distorted by skewed algorithms that just feed you dodgy content, driven by a CEO with some very serious personality issues and no one to counterbalance his increasingly extreme views. Instead you'll find me here:

London based photographer, gone back to analogue, way back to a 1916 camera, and bang up to date with digital mirrorless. More is more. Don't be shuttered 📷 😉