Fingers crossed everyone, Lenzr usually gets real exciting when there is just ten days left in each contest, because when the countdown ends, the voting begins!  At 12:01 am Monday Dec 20th, 2010 the flood gates open and Lenzr will begin collecting human participation in the form of votes and comments. Please remember there are two types of votes.  As near as I can figure the unregistered visitor’s vote is worth about 86% less than a registered member’s vote.

Broken Factories photo contest has twenty six images to chose from, and Canadian Beaches photo contest has over fifty images in the queue. Making it Beautiful has approx thirty good pictures. When viewed sequentially, each contest tells a story -  they reflect all aspects of a subject theme.

Lenzr has a slightly different perspective on photo contests; on this website the picture galleries grow and are presented as an interactive slide-show to the voters. Each contest is a unique story with a beginning, middle and eventually an end – a happy ending for someone. Every day there is a little bit more recorded and the stories grow image by image, vote by vote.

Who will win?

With almost one hundred images in these three galleries it’s hard to say which is the best and which is ‘sure to win’. Indeed there are still more pictures being uploaded every day. Who are all these photographers? They’re not the usual suspects.

Later today, Lenzr admin will be deleting all photos that don’t match each photo contest’s criteria. MAKING IT BEAUTIFUL for example clearly stipulates that the photos must have a subject, somebody or something must be visible actually making something beautiful. Unfortunately a lot of submissions do not have this requirement, and rather than delete them from the index as they were uploaded, I have again opted to do one surgical strike and cleanse the board immediately before voting begins.

If your photo was deleted…

It was because it didn’t have a subject, a human or animal or extreterrestrial actually making something beautiful as per the contest requirements. Sadly some of the prettiest pictures were deleted. There was close-ups of plants and human haircuts and one shot in particular showed the back of a woman’s head, her hair tied together with a floral bow. It’s worth noting that this is probably exactly the type of content that would most please this particular contest sponsor; Aveda Institute hopes to become more widely known as high quality hair school.

More Photo Contests in February

In February 2011 there will be more photo contests, a lot more. These challenges will run 60 days until April 1st, 2011. At that time something totally amazing will happen – a brand new Lenzr 2.0 will launch in Canada.

Let there be Judges

The February photo contests will be judged by other famous photographers, notable friends of Lenzr, Canadian celebrities, camera store owners, club presidents, and glitterati along with that contest’s individual sponsor – the judges will be listed in the contest descriptions. Collectively the body will decide which of the top ten photos submitted to the competition is the best image, as per the criteria stipulated in the contest description.

Lenzr Lovers don’t Cheat.

Once again Lenzr is poised to watch the scores and protect the people who respect the system. With the introduction of Judges next round its hoped the quality of the submitted images will improved, as will of course the winning image.  Its also hoped the drive to cheat and be number one will also be diminished.

Over the holidays our staff is on guard to help safeguard healthy competition, and this time we have even better tools, and smarter proxy IP blockers. In the last twenty days we’ve moved the website to a dedicated server and have built even more impressive additions to our firewall. These improvements should really frustrate cheaters. Now it will be real hard to use a proxy IP websites to get fresh votes, and all phoney email address providers have also been blocked. In addition to the firewall security upgrades, we also have sophisticated scanner set to report shady behavior. In the unlikely event that cheating does occur, the perpetrator’s voting patterns, destination address, source information, technical interface relationship data and even more information can be gleaned and scrutinized.

So let’s go over some FAQs about the rules again…

What is Allowed?

Telling your friends to come and vote for your photo is absolutely allowed. Telling them to vote unregistered and then register as members to vote again is allowed. Voting for yourself from another computer is allowed. But using the same PC routed through a 3rd party network or conduit is not allowed and will be blocked / detected. Using mobile phones to visit and vote from many locations is undesirable, immoral, and kinda scary cause we don’t know how effective we can be stopping that just yet. I want someone to write me or tell me in the comments how to stop that. What value are comments in Lenzr scoring? Comments used to have real value in the Lenzr vote algorithm, now they have less weight, but they do serve to show administrators that the member has real friends who like the picture.

Is Lenzr just a popularity contest?

Yes right now and for the last time this photo contest website could be described as an image driven social media popularity contest – the prize winner will probably have the most friends, and indeed have the strongest loyalty among friends. This in itself is rather honourable, but ultimately we are building a user driven photo contest website and not friend collector reward program.  We’ve got to bring it back to the pictures.  That said we know what we have to do and are doing it – next contest sequence will have judges, and then a whole new ballgame will appear online in march 2011, fingers crossed.

On the 10th of Dec 2010 Melani Chong of The Soyaboutique met Seattle Dredge the winner of the Water on Skin photo contest on Lenzr.

While Lenzr admin took pictures and made notes, Melani Chong of the Soyaboutique natural skin care gave Seattle Dredge over $500 worth of organic soy beauty products

Seattle’s picture The Dive won the contest. There were 28 pictures uploaded and 338 votes.

She also talked a lot about natural skin care products and generously donated one hour of her knowledge and dozens of valuable beauty tips specific to these innovative, organic products.

Beautifying Prize Winner

Seattle Dredge was delighted to win the $5oo dollars worth of Soyaboutique products. Although Seattle has relatively youthful looking skin, she received all natural skin care moisturizer that is a organic serum and comes complete with the hydrators people have been requesting. Seattle was encouraged to use the moisturizer to preserve her younger looking skin and keep it wrinkle free in the future.

Melani helped Seattle come up with her own skin care routine. The products will certainly help her keep that young and healthy looking appearance even when she travels. These green water based cosmetic products were made for women of all ages and skin types. When you hear the sound of the “pop” on the SoySilk can – know that it’s a unique designed  lid that helps ensure its clean and sludge-free.

Seattle definitely had thoughts of other ladies in her life that would benefit from these natural beauty products and their straight forward simple use. The prize package consisted of aromatherapy healing balm. If you are tired and want to boost your energy these products will also help boost your immune system. Enclosed in the Lenzr contest prize was also was cream cleanser, which compared to grandmas cold cream is very gentle. Make no mistake this is a tear free foaming cleanser, emulsive cleanser, and is indeed an “instant face Lift” – tightening serum, repairing serum. Its a spray toner which is a mildly scented refreshing spray that is a fantastic disinfectant for yoga mats and other equipment. These vegan cosmetic products are sometimes milky in colour. Not to worry, these cosmetics are not clear due to the natural qualities. It’s like keeping the pulp in your juice. The nutrients such as vitamin C remain.

Products That Heal

Some of the other things included in seattledredge’s prize package was a series of healing products from their line for sensitive skin. The hypersensitive cleanser and moisturizer are hypo-allergenic and great for younger looking skin without causing irritation. The latter is more of a serum, to be applied at night while the skin repairs itself. It provides maximum hydration and won’t clog pores because they’re water-based. With health-savvy shoppers now recognizing that  oil-based products can use cheap ingredients and can damage the skin, soy moisturizer and other natural beauty products have been all the rage. Designed by Donna Bishop, a friend of Chong’s who also designed cosmetics for professional models,  these products are fresh, organic, and natural.

A Simple Skincare Regimen Without All The Fuss

When asked about her skincare routine, Seattle is like many of us – a minimalist with little time to spend on excessive facials. With her hectic days, there will be times when Seattle would just wash her face with water and not remove her makeup. For busy, on-the-go gals like Seattle, Melani recommends the Makeup Emulsion Cleanser, which is great for all skin types and makes life a little simpler by being hypo-allergenic. What exactly does this term mean? It means that it’s unlikely to cause an allergic reaction and because it’s tar-free, non-scented, and very mild, it’s safe enough to use around the eyes.
Seattle can take the healing process one step further by using Soya Boutique’s Aromatherapy Healing Balm. For those long days, this balm’s energizing scent will combat fatigue and boost energy levels, while — get this — also helping to boost your immune system. The health benefits of this product are so impressive that they are even used in some movie sets.

Although Seattle already has great, youthful skin, Melani Chong reminded her that she can maintain that youthfulness longer by using serum at night. This helps to lock in the moisture and keeps skin hydrated, which is essential for that youthful, dewy look. Using emulsion serum locks in moisture and tightens the skin – it’s like a face lift in a bottle. While Seattle does not have acne, Chong advises that she can indeed combat that occasional breakout by using a vitamin C serum instead; “it’s a great moisturizer and your skin will drink it up” Melani says.

With a big basket of goodies to bring home, Seattle can either use them all herself or share with her friends; the products are versatile because these water based soy cosmetics are balanced for so many different skin types. Soyaboutique gives each user the power to customize their own skin care regimen.

We hope that Seattle Dredge will enjoy her grand prize and enjoy all the benefits of Soyaboutique’s natural skincare products!

Lianne’s Snail Trail wins Lenzr’s Backyard Critters Contest

The Backyard Critters contest in November was one of Lenzr’s most popular photo contests yet, with more than 130 contestants and over five thousand votes. Liane‘s winning photo, Snail Trail, captured the hearts of voters with her adorable cross-eyed daughter Isabelle and a nose-occupying snail. It garnered over 637 votes.

Congratulations, Lianne, on winning this popular event. Your grand prize of an Apple iPad is waiting to be claimed. We’re sure that you’ll love your prize as much as Isabelle loves her snails!

Roxxyroller wins Concrete Ideas and Colourful Houses

“A Beauty of Concrete” for Concrete Ideas

“Colourful House in Cuba” for Colourful Houses

Roxxyroller is the winner of not one but two photo contests this month! She ranked first in both the Concrete Ideas contest as well as the Colourful Houses contest.

The Concrete Ideas photo contest showcased 77 amazing photos with more than 2833 votes that really captured the charm of various buildings, structures, and roads. The Colourful Houses photo contest had over 54 submitted photographs and 2151 votes. With more than two thousand votes on both contests, they proved to be favourites among Lenzr visitors.

Congratulations to Concrete Ideas’ winner, roxxyroller, with the photo, “A Beauty of a Concrete”. The snapshot of a rundown building in Varadero collected over six hundred points. The second winning photo, “Colorful House in Cuba” for Colourful Houses, made the top score of 371.4. Her photo is an interesting shot of a red, yellow, and blue building complex. Roxxyroller, we hope you enjoy your two grand prizes of an Apple iPad!

Heidip’s Beagle Proves to Be Smartly Dressed

Lenzr’s third photo contest last month was one that warmed our hearts. Pets In Winter Coats attracted close to 1500 votes among the 19 photo submissions.

The lucky winner is heidip with her photo, Dressed – Prairie Winter, which shows her beagle Rocco dressed to impress in his knit sweater and bundled scarf. It proved to be a fan favourite with a final score of 1017.7 votes.

Heidip, we hope that you and Rocco will enjoy your red electric snow blower this winter.

Seattleredge Takes a Dive With Water on Skin

Lenzr’s Water on Skin photo contest had 28 contestants and over 325 votes. The winning photo belonged to seattledredge, with “The Dive”. Taken in Waterford, Ontario, the image shows the silhouette of a woman gracefully gliding in aqua water. It scored a grand total of 89.5 points, bringing it to the top of the ranks.

Congratulations Seattledredge on winning the grand prize of $500 worth of Soya Boutique skincare products!

A big thank you to all contestants and voters.

Be sure to visit Lenzr.com regularly to follow up on our current and upcoming contests! We currently still have three contests running throughout the month of December, so make sure to check them out!

The above three contests will run until January 1st, 2010 and voting will begin December 20th. Click on the contest template above for more details.

Dec 1st 2010 marks a historic time for Lenzr. Membership in this serial photo contest website has grown significantly over the last month; never before have there been such high levels of participation. There have been over 10,000 visitors this month! Look at the spike on Nov 20th when voting began. Saving the voting for the last ten days was a good idea. It certainly has made everything more exciting.

For the last thirty days there have been eight photo contests running on Lenzr with over $3K worth of prizes to be yielded to winning members. The five contests that ended this morning have inspired over a hundred Canadian photographers to upload and share approx three hundred images. The sponsors are thrilled; their branded contests have attracted a lot of attention in many different social networks and image sharing sites.
But these contests are not without controversy.

At 12:01am on Dec 1st 2010  five Lenzr photo contests came to their natural conclusion. The real winners won prizes and their pictures will be discussed in great detail in another post.  Backyard Critters had over 120 images submitted to the index and almost 7ooo recorded votes. That’s incredible.

There are no new photo contests launching on December 1st.

What does Lenzr most want?

Lenzr is a user generated, user governed arena that showcases amateur photography sponsored by online businesses in full or as part of larger digital marketing campaigns. Its okay to visit and vote, and then register as a member and vote again. Its okay to post solicitations in friend networks and on Twitter and Facebook; that’s encouraged.

It’s not okay to use a proxy email server like Malinator to create multiple profiles from which to vote perfect 10′s for your picture. Its not okay to use proxies to hide-your-IP and issue multiple votes from the same computer within a short period of time.

Regarding vote fraud

My name is Rob Campbell and I run Lenzr.com which exists physically in an old warehouse building in downtown Toronto Ontario Canada. I’m not the only stakeholder, but I wear the pants. And I write most of the copy and I make the hard choices, and ultimately, I also make mistakes. But I’m 100% accountable. I stand behind my decisions, and I’m ready to take on all comers.

In the spirit of total transparency I write the following explanations and indeed my sincerest apologies to those curious contenders that were unceremoniously removed from the challenge in the eleventh hour.

Truth is, we were simply not prepared to stop IP proxy vote fraud as effectively as I had earlier believed. It happened in all contests, and it certainly dampened my enthusiasm for an otherwise spectacular session. Instead of being excited by the numbers, I grew apprehensive that there would be more witnesses and ultimately more anger to the unnatural accumulation of votes and the embarrassing demise of three or more contenders. Lenzr tried to be a purely democratic system…  we really did try.

Why delete photos at the last minute?

During the course of the contest it became clear that certain image submissions were being advanced in a fraudulent manner using 3rd party IP proxy services and other connivances. This has happened before on Lenzr and photos have been deleted accordingly. New methods were introduced after September sessions to give better insight into the source of votes, but unfortunately these devices didn’t work to prevent all types of fraudulent votes. On Nov 22nd, Lenzr admin made the difficult choice to continue exhibiting the contests without any interference, rather than issue public statements or email personal warnings or delete photos and ban members as the contest progressed, fearing retaliatory moves which the site was unable to prevent.

The decision was made to make a list of known offenders and remove them with only a few minutes left in the contest which appears somewhat cruel, but makes a lot of sense when it is explained. These people have violated the Lenzr Terms of Service and so their photos can be deleted at any time.

I chose to remove them from competition when there was smallest window of retaliation. You see we feared they’d use their proxies and bogus accounts to fraudulently affect other people’s submissions.

For example, Pretty in Pink was deleted from the Pets in Winter Coats contest.  This is an excellent example of vote fraud that’s easily detected using even the most basic analytical analysis tools.

Here at Lenzr we have very advanced fraud detection equipment, which I’m not at liberty to show, as well as basic resources like good old Google Analytics, which I can use to illustrate my point here in this blog.

Remember in the Pets in Winter Coats contest there were two highly ranked member submissions doing battle for top position. Above is a picture called Pretty in Pink which had a lot of comments, but they were almost all fake.  Just by using a simple analytics tool, anyone can see that the number one referring site to this photo page was Malinator.com * Please, click the picture, it expands.

The second submission was a near perfect vote solicitation in social media case study – a true win win scenario.

The winner of the contest was Dressed, Prairie Winter which features a beagle in a sweater sitting outside on the prairies – this photo collected friends’ votes from 21 different referring sites including, Facebook followed by SmartCanucks, Twitter, Frugal Shopper, and RedFlagDeals.   This participant worked hard to spread the message.  This member deserves to win the snow blower prize being offered by the sponsor.

Once again I must announce changes to the Lenzr photo contest model.

Starting Jan 1st 2011, all Lenzr photo contests will be decided by a mixture of member voting to bring about a Top Ten grouping from which the winner is ultimately decided by judge(s) appointed by the sponsor and announced at the beginning of the event.

I’ll be the first to admit that this makes more sense. The best photos will make the top ten, and although the commenting and community sharing frenzy will certainly be diminished, cheating should also be reduced.

More information on new IP proxy filters, formats, winners and prizes to follow. Do you have questions or criticisms? Let me know in the comments – we publish all queries and complaints.