Stockport PS was very pleased to host the third round of this year's Cheadle Alliance competition. It's a four part competition between Stockport PS, Hyde PS, Romiley CC and Bramhall PS. Each club hosts one of the rounds.

The evening got off to a slow start because due to a mix up with dates one of the clubs had to submit their entries at the very last minute. But once these had arrived and were sorted out, we had an excellent evening with some very high quality images in both print and digital. Each club submits six entries so there were twenty-four images in print and digital.

The judge was Bill Preston from Whitby PS. He gave some quite detailed comments on the pictures. Many of his comments were about composition where there were distracting bright bits or empty spaces with nothing of interest. Certainly very helpful comments especially for the less experienced among us.

The results for this round were Bramhall 1st, Hyde 2nd, Stockport 3rd and Romiley 4th. Full results can be found in our documents section.

Mayne Coaches Ltd have sent details of a trip they are organizing to Photokina in September

Thursday 23rd September - Monday 27th September 2010, £289 per person.

The visit to Cologne departs on Thursday 23rd September at about lunchtime and will travel via Hull to Rotterdam, you will spend the night on the ferry and arrive in Rotterdam early the next morning.

The onward journey to Cologne will take about four hours. You will have the rest of Friday afternoon at leisure in Cologne or a half day visit to Photokina. There are at least two very good camera shops in Cologne, one at the side of the Cathedral and one in the city centre.

On Saturday your coach will take you to Photokina and return to the hotel at 1800.

On Sunday morning we will depart the hotel calling at the very popular town of Brugge in Belgium for the afternoon. We will then make the short journey to Zeebrugge for the overnight ferry to Hull.

We will arrive home just after lunchtime on Monday 27th September.

The price will be £289.00 per person based on two sharing a twin room and will include,Executive coach travel for the 5 days, overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and on the return Zeebrugge to Hull, in a cabin, two nights bed including breakfast in a German hotel.

We can also arrange for a reduced price meal package on board the ferry both ways. The coach benefits from a toilet / washroom, complimentary tea / coffee, DVD film facilities and full air conditioning. The driver is an experienced continental driver.

There will be photographic opportunities in Cologne and Brugge.

If you are interested contact Mayne directly via phone: 0161 223 8111 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Native Digital (www.nativedigital.co.uk) have sent details of some free webinars about colour management and workflow in Photoshop & Lightroom:

Get the Best Prints from Your Lab on the 17th February

Color Workflow in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lighroom on the 24th February

They look very interesting, and I've registered to watch!

I discovered this site and thought it would be interesting to all.

http://www.photoguides.net/a-quick-recipe-for-smoke-photography