Landscaping is an art form combining aspects of construction with the forces of nature. Lenzr’s timely new contest, Landscaping and Lawn Care, wants to see your submissions of nature as a canvas. Just as a painter blends colour on their palette, so too do skilled landscapers who may plant lavender with its delicate hints of muted green and purple underneath the rich burgundy of a Japanese Maple. Landscaping requires more than just getting on your hands and knees and working with the earth; the aesthetics of a beautiful lawn space require planning as well as pruning.

Colour, along with form, lines, scale and texture, are the basic elements of landscaping. There are many options to consider while planning your backyard oasis: will the plants be local or exotic? Will you incorporate non-organic materials, such as rocks or mirrors, into your space? Will your landscaping design serve a practical purpose, such as thick shrubbery intended to keep at bay the prying eyes of peeping toms?

Your photograph should tell a story to our judges. Why has your subject been designed the way it has? This photograph of a square in Oaxaca City, Mexico shows a plot of agave plants, significant because agave is the ingredient of regional drinks tequila and mezcal, aesthetically pleasing because the spiky appearance of the plant works nicely with the palm trees which share a similar shape. Show us a manicured landscape with a story behind it and you could win!

This photo contest is sponsored by The Grass Cutters, a cutting-edge property maintenance and landscaping company that also has the distinction of being the first clean air lawn service in Canada. The Grass Cutters epitomizes the term ‘lawn care’ with their 100% zero emissions, sustainable lawn care system powered by renewable energy. The Grass Cutters is a company that not only provides a first-class property maintenance service, it also sets a standard that benefits the planet we live on; “We believe that being environmentally friendly should start with your front lawn,” says the company’s website.

The winner of this contest can get environmentally friendly in their own front lawn with $250 worth of battery operated landscaping tools. This is a great prize for gardeners or anyone looking to get their hands and knees into their own little plot of land. Regardless of whether or not your thumb is already green, this is a prize that will make it greener.

This contest begins September 1, 2011. Voting begins October 15, 2011, after which the top ten user-ranked images advance to the Lenzr judges on October 25, 2011. The winning photograph will be announced November 1, 2011.

Lenzr Judges Make Final Decision

Four great summer photo contests have come to end this month.  And there have been so many wonderful images to select winners from.  The Lenzr Judges had their work cut out for them.   There were some challenging decisions to make from the top ten photos from each photo contests.   Each of the four contests had 10 amazing photos, but only one prize for each.   Everyone has their personal favourite photos but thanks to the Lenzr Judges there are now four prize winners!   Congratulations to each winner,  and all other entries for their time and effort!

Objects in Motion

The MetroCity photo, taken by kevyn2992, is the prize winner of a Sony laptop. The photographer described with his photo “The quickest way to downtown Vancouver is riding above the streets. Here the people move fast and the weather changes fast too, so you better be ready to act and adapt to keep up.”
The overall Objects in Motion contest received 157 entrees and over 3,500 votes.  Then out of the top ten rated the judges determined MetroCity the winner. One of the judges, R. Carmichael wrote  ‘something eerily retro, yet remarkably modern juxtaposed upon a dark, storm, almost surreal weather-scape that is Vancouver. “  Another judge explained, “the train caught coming into the station contrasts nicely with the stationary platform and tracks.  The ominous clouds adds a good touch, as well.”

Also, an honorable mention goes to mitchelbriones.   His photo was a close tie with his photo titled,  Let’s Move it’s Summer, which is another awesome photo.  However, the judges determined MetroCity the winner with each judge having a second choice option voting in it’s favor.

Toronto Tourist Attraction

The Flatiron photo to the right by silversurfer71 was voted the best Toronto Tourist Attraction image.  The top ten voted Toronto Tourist Attraction photos were a competitive challenge with 49 photo entrees and almost 1000 votes. This picture was described as,  “one of the most pretty buildings in Toronto and that it reminds one me of a piece of pie.”  “This building is a icon of Toronto that represents a time that is long gone but not forgotten.  The composition is lovely.  Surreal.”

This was another hard decision for judges due to the amazing photos to choose from.  The photo to the right titled, Who is there?? by mr_slava came close to winning as well.  A judge wrote “the baby picture made me take a second look at exactly what was happening here.  I questioned myself as to what I was seeing.This in itself makes for a great picture as it keeps the viewer’s attention, making the guess what is happening.  Nicely done.”  Once again so many great photos to choose from.

Fireplaces and Furnaces

So many beautiful photos were entered into this photo challenge.  Even though the  Fire Places and Furnaces photo contests only had 27 entrees, it received over 530 votes.  Out of the top ten photos the judges determined the photo to the left, Summer Bonfire by Lefthook 25 the best photo and the prize winner of another Sony laptop.  The judges admired the capture of colours.  The use of blue hues is incredible.

Another photo mention in the photo contest goes to Hello Summer by Dasha for it was another almost tie with the winner, and This Band is Hot by j3ckl3r.  Both of these near misses images gave off a warm mood.   All the photos, especially the top ten, were incredible.

Haircuts and Hairstyles

Donna Dolphy was very impressed with the quality of Haircuts and Hair Styles that were uploaded into the contest. Her Yorkville salon is always interested in seeing new fashions and testing new hair styles on different shaped human heads. This contest was something akin to research for herself and her stylists.

This contest received 56 photo entrees and almost 800 votes.   The judges had a few favourites once again.   However, a final decision had to be made, and not everyone could win, so the winning photo is Colourful Braid by danielle-elise of Burlington.  “I liked the ponytail partly because of the cropping of the photo. It captures the purpose of the picture, which focuses on the hair.  The composition along with the nicely highlighted hair makes me give this one the thumbs up.”  judge Taku wrote.  Another judge liked the subtly of it.

Once again another mention goes to another close second silversurfer71 and his photo  Hawk and the Scarlet Dove, with comments from judges, “nice head what do you feed it!”   Another judge gave this feedback, “Nice job Silver Surfer.  The hair is great. The gritty dirt is awesome, the reflection in the sunglasses is almost out of this world.”

Lenzr judges were pleased with many of the photos that they had to choose from to pick from.   The competition was high.  Congratulations to all the finalists in each of the four contests.  Each photo deserves a mention of some kind for their creative risk taking and photographic skills.

The weekend is almost upon us and we wanted to update you on the progress of the contests.

The July/August 2011 session has been one of Lenzr’s most successful cycle ever. The number of photos and votes uploaded has been incredible and we are very happy with the participation levels. The more photos uploaded the more valuable Lenzr is as a story telling social media tool.

Fireplaces and Furnaces was an extreme challenge. It was about being creative and finding the right flame. It took contestants a lot of dedication and creativity to reach the top ten. Even though the Fire Places and Furnaces photo contests only had 27 entrees, it received over 530 votes. The online promotion for the photographs has been incredible.

Toronto Bed and Breakfast came to us after a lunch discussion in the office. With tourists around every street corner, this was the best time for this contest to launch. We felt this challenge would be fun and engaging, with 49 entrees and almost 1000 votes, we are confident that contestants agreed with us and had a blast snapping images around the city.

Haircuts and Hair Styles is a special contest because we don’t often have fashion related themes on our website. We wanted to see the best images of blunt, layered or styled hair. Participants eagerly accepted the challenge; the contest received 56 entrees and almost 800 votes. The Haircuts and Hair styles top 10 photographs showcase different funky haircuts.

The main goal of Objects in Motion is making an object look like they are zooming through a shot. This is the most successful contest we have ever had on Lenzr. Objects in Motion received 157 entrees and over 3,500 votes. This contest is very important to Lenzr because it lets us know what our participants enjoy and what they want to see more of. Thanks to everyone who participated or voted for the contests. We enjoy checking out your photographs and seeing them rise to the top. We do have two contests on the Lenzr website that you can still get involved in, make sure to check them out and discuss them on our forum.

Good luck to all participants with Top Ten photos. Winners announced September 1st 2011 right here on the Lenzr Blog.

Who are these Lenzr Judges that pick from the Top Ten groupings in all four July August Contests? Why should they get to decide the winners? If you read this blog from the start, you will comprehend a two year account of an ongoing evolution toward a truly democratic photo contest website. We keep changing the rules as we go along to try and ‘evolve’ a totally fair arena that’s fun and exciting for everyone – adding ideas like delayed voting and making comments count for points etc have all worked to make the site more interesting and honest. In the beginning, we tried to host and maintain a purely user ranked victory mechanism, but that of course was subject to excessive gaming and vote hoarding. Now we have Eight Judges who pick from the Top Ten and the quality of winning images has dramatically improved, and its more fair for the members (who can get their submitted images to rise to top 10 in the index*).

Its with some pride that myself the rest of us here at Lenzr Corp can wash our hands of the responsibility of actually picking the winners. We have no say in it. But we are responsible for making sure that Judges’ votes are properly recorded, and everyone is kept updated on who the Judges actually are..? And we’re proud of our judges cause they’re all pretty cool.

Here’s a terrible composition, my own work, that shows the rough outline of five of our Lenzr Judges,

We haven’t heard from Marc Gendron , the guy on the end,  the proprietor of In The Eye of the Lens yet, so we are not sure if he is still a judge or not? Considering the job doesn’t pay anything except honour, which is obtained in blog posts like this, it’s not surprising that busy people drop out of the program. It’s okay Marc – just let me know, so that you can go back to being a participant and maybe winning some merchandise in Sept. There’s going to be some cool contests launching on 1st September 2011, or shortly thereafter.

On August 25th four photo contests will close to voting and the membership will wait as the Lenzr judges pick their two favourites from the Top Ten images in each contest.

August 2011 Lenzr Judges

1) Bill Watson owner of a cool aerial photography business with very affordable prices.
2) Debbie Watson aka Mommakoala, is still tied in first place with an expanding core of Lenzr members who share the honour of having won four photo contests.
3) Taku Kamabe, previous Lenzr winner and art director for trade magazines and websites.
4) Richard Carmichael is back for another round of Judging. He’s a busy guy with his work at Frank Ideas and Execution and his full time job as a father of three and editor in chief at Heads-Up Dad. But he remains committed to Lenzr
5) Gregory White of Gregory White Photography – thanks for you help last session.

And now, introducing,

6) Adrian Fiebig

Ignore the pretentious profile picture – its all he had. Adrian Fiebig is a cool guy. He has been working as a freelance photographer for the last 25 years. Born in London, England, his work has taken him to many parts of the globe including London, Cape Town, Los Angeles, Miami, Amsterdam, and Toronto. He met Rob Campbell while waiting for the rain to stop out front of Archeo restaurant in The Distillery District the same day / storm in which rob shot the highly acclaimed YouTube video entitled, Sudden Rain Shower interrupts The Distillery Tenants BBQ on Monday 15th of August.

Adrian’s experience, skills and creativity contribute to his lasting success in the fashion industry.

Adrian has shot professionally for a broad range of advertising, catalogue, and editorial clients including BMW, ING Direct, Harrods, Marks and Spencer, Jaeger, Burton Group, Weller, Clairol, L’Oreal, Cover Girl, Revlon, Procter and Gamble, Sony and Labatts. Catalogue clients include Sears, Hudson’s Bay Company, Empire Stores, and Gratons. Editorial clients include Cosmopolitan, Company, Seventeen, Options, Woman’s Own, Good Housekeeping, Living, Hairdressers Journal, and Flare.

And finally,
Donna Dolphy has agreed to let me shoot a video of her picking her favourites in all four contests, including her own match Haircuts and Hair Styles which has a large amount of pictures. The Top Ten is interesting, but not for the haircuts. We intend to shoot the video right inside Donna’s Yorkville salon so viewers can get a sense of this fascinating woman inside her castle. Its a very social place and we all love her energy.

And so that’s all eight judges, if you count Marc Gendron. I haven’t given up on him yet.
Good luck for all participants that managed to get shots in the Top Ten groupings. I remind readers that we are working on counter measures to prevent one or two members from dominating the Top Ten and we hope to have these in place before Sept 15 or Oct 15 at the latest.

Lenzr’s newest photo contest launched just in time for the dog days of summer. We’ve never tried a photo contest specifically looking for ‘beverage photography’, and we thought the heat might give Lenzr members some inspiration; first, to create a colorful liquid concoction, and second, to practice your photography skills (for best results do your shooting before sampling the drinks). Make it look tasty!

There’s a reason that cold beer and sports games go hand-in-hand; could you imagine sitting through all those commercials without having a case on hand to quench your thirst? By the way, your submission doesn’t need to be an alcoholic beverage–it could be lemonade or a freshly blended fruit smoothie–the key here is the 140 character summery.

Show us cocktails, juices, martinis, caesars or daiquiris; treat your liquid canvas as a still life and move your ice cubes, olives or fruit with a toothpick until it’s picture perfect. You could even use Lenzr’s Classy Summer Drinks contest as an excuse to have friends over for a party, if an excuse to party is hard to come by as summer begins to hint at its inevitable end…

Onyx is committed to reducing the widespread use of plastic and believes that everyone should be able to buy safe and environmentally responsible products without breaking the bank.

The winner of this contest will receive $400 worth of stainless steel products from Onyx’s catalog –it’s your choice– with free shipping anywhere in Canada. This is high-quality, long-lasting kitchenware that won’t leak pollutants into your food and definitely won’t shatter. Onyx even has stainless steel popsicle makers; they are a Canadian company who were inspired through their own children to create food and drink containers that were safe, resilient and healthy.

This contest glorifies humanity’s most computerized manufacturing processes. We want to see machines at work inside highly mechanized assembly plants.  For a few different reasons, this challenge marks an evolution at Lenzr, which is becoming something of a photo contest manufacturing website itself… Sponsors are asking to license images now.

Six months ago we ran some other industrial-themed photo contests such as Beautiful Factories and we learned that there is great potential for finding beauty in unlikely places; even an automated assembly line in a factory is a sight to behold when captured at the right moment by the right lens.

So we’re trying something different in A Manufacturing Process. Our sponsor is looking for original images for their new website, and so instead of the standard win-a-prize method usually associated with Lenzr contests, our sponsor will give the winning photograph $250 and a three-year licensing agreement!  This is a great opportunity for photographers hoping to find a paid opportunity. Having your photographic work on display on the website of an internationally respected manufacturing software company will look great on your growing portfolio. This contest will have one talented winner and three runners-up. Our sponsor is offering three additional Lenzr members $75 each for their photos in a non-exclusive licensing agreement.

This is the third Lenzr contest Solarsoft has sponsored; the first two were Broken Factories and Beautiful Factories. Solarsoft was impressed with the overall quality of the photos submitted to their previous contests – they wanted to run more matches but this time they had  hopes of recruiting the talents of Lenzr’s membership to provide manufacturing imagery for their new website.

Submit original images of automated equipment making stuff indoors and Solarsoft, a manufacturing software solutions provider, will license your shots for their new website. They need hard-to-find shots of automated manufactring processes for the process manufacturing page, and the lean manufacturing page. The winner gets $250 photo licensing deal, while three other photographers are offered $75 photo licensing deals.

Solarsoft’s innovative systems offer recipe-based bills of materials, multi-level batch traceability and flow-rate optimization to ensure that its clients’ operations are running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Henry Ford revolutionized industrial progress almost a hundred years ago with his invention of the assembly line technique of mass production. Solarsoft is continuing on this legacy of productive ingenuity with their process manufacturing solutions for automated machinery–and your photograph could have a part in it!

This contest started August 1, 2011. Voting begins September 15 after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges. The winning photograph will be announced October 1, 2011.

These were the first four contests on the new website, and they shall always be remembered in screengrabs like this – they are forever preserved in the history of Lenzr, and will be added to the growing legacy of successful social media storytelling case studies.

The winners are:

Construction Sights: Congratulations, silversurfer71, your photo Total Destruction has won you a Sony laptop! Here’s what some of the Lenzr judges had to say:

“Although I’m generally not too partial to unrealistic HDR images, I like the composition of this picture the best. The black and orange arm in the front stands out and gives a sense of power with the torn down building in the background, supporting this feeling.”

“That’s a great image.”

“A fine superposition telling a story in one shot.”

Admin, Rob Campbell adds that the machinery looks like a prehistoric animal and with the machine in the background working on the building, it suggests that they are eating the concrete. This is not actually a construction site yet, its still a destruction site, and hence the name. The machines look like wild animals eating the buildings. Its an awesome picture and worthy of any Construction Company website – these are the types of images that Lenzr would someday like to license and make available to web developers.

Best Office Staff Party: Congratulations mr_slava, you’ve won a Sony laptop for your photo called ‘Get Into the Pool’. Here’s what some of the Lenzr judges had to say:

“Took me awhile to get it, but throwing people in the pool is fun. It’s happened to me before, when I was younger. He has to win!”

“Great picture – great entry. Mr Slava has the only picture worth considering memorable.”

“You can just picture what happens next with this one. The expression of the guy by the pool is a classic and tells us exactly what we all want to see, but are left to see it in our own imagination.”

A Counting Exercise: Congratulations silversurfer71, you’ve won again, this time by a landslide, with your photo ‘Air Time Math.’ Here’s what some of the Lenzr judges had to say:

“Beautiful action shot, and I love the way her outstretched arms are mirrored in the hopscotch drawing on the road.”

“First Pick is “Air Time Math” This photo shows counting starting at an early age. The photo is well composed. Funny how this pic reminds me of Sesame Street.”

“This is a great capture of the child in action. Her frozen in the air as she hops through the numbers is great. It’s such a playful image that captures the essence of counting by the numbers in the squares.”

“There is something innocent and compelling about a child at play. I think we all can relate to a good game of hopscotch. I found myself counting to myself when I observed this photo.”

Shafts of Sunlight:

Congratulations lemming, you’ve won a Sony Cyber Shot with your photo ‘Forestrays’. It was a close contest between this photo and Martin Savaria’s ‘National Highway 2′. Here’s what some of the judges had to say:

“… soft capture of morning sunlight. Nice colour and layout.”

“Breathtaking and captivating.”

“Shafts of light through trees in forests are always a classic. I can really get the feel of the emptiness of the forest with this picture. The sunlight looks almost a little surreal, as if it’s coming from heaven. A wider crop to the photo would have brought about a more expressive picture, but I still get a good warmth out of this one as it is.”

“It’s brilliant.”

CEO Rob’s reflections on the four July 2011 Lenzr Photo Contests:

CONSTRUCTION SIGHTS
The Construction Sights photo contest was a nice exercise in voyeurism. There were a lot of photos taken from the fence. It reminded me of a Dumpdiggers post about buying bottles in parking lots of excavation sites. I like construction sites and will go out of my way to look through the hole in the fence and peer down into the fresh concrete abyss, and see men working beside stacks of rebar, nailing together wooden forms or nowadays its insulated concrete forms and men without shirts laboring away and using their bodies to make things that will endure for three hundred years or maybe more… I’ve often wondered if the first skyscrapers will be deemed historical buildings and have people lobbying to save them? Do you think your children, or your children’s children will ever donate money to Save the Scotia Bank Tower fund? Will the tallest skyscraper today someday be dwarfed by the next generation’s monoliths?

BEST OFFICE STAFF PARTY
I gotta be honest, this was a bit of a disappointment for me, and in that reckoning I learned something. People generally are not comfortable posting pictures of their friends and co-workers going crazy in the office. And good for them – the last thing we want to do is be the lynchpin in some scandalous story emerging about misdeeds eye witnessed and made public in a Lenzr photo contest.
I expected to see more and better pictures here, but I was pleased with the Top Ten grouping overall. There are some fine snapshots visible and they are definitely more storyful, or full of story than average, so we got that part right. And regarding the Top Ten, I’ve read some of the Judge’s selections and, indeed, there’s a contest here.

SHAFTS OF SUNLIGHT
This was the spotlight of the summer so far. You know this match was on the back burner for two or maybe even three months before it ever launched? It was ghost contest. Shafts of Sunlight sat unpublished in the CMS of the previous Lenzr website, and the blog widgets would pick it up and show the same three images … But nobody could enter – the contest didn’t go live until June 1st on the new website.
At first this contest was just a collection of lens flares and foreground lighting affects at best, at worst in some shots including those I deleted and many that came afterwards, there were no noticeable shafts or flares beyond overexposure. However, the sponsor is very happy with the results of this contest and found the whole experience quite illuminating.

A COUNTING EXERCISE
The most successful Lenzr photo contest to date – count up the numbers! This contest has exceeded the previous record holder, Backyard Critters
by about another 25 images. It had 152 pictures total! And it attracted an amazing quality of originality – I was and will always be extremely proud of this contest for being so successful and imaginative, original and cool. That’s right, it was cool. We hit on something in the zeitgeist there – people do like to count things.

In fact, this contest was so well constructed, I want to show off my favourites of the ones that didn’t make the Top Ten images. Lenzr admin will give ‘honourable mentions’ which has never happened thus far in the entire history of the website, but some pics were so good I sat and marveled at them and wondered how to celebrate them and their creators:

Shark!!!

Great job Toylady.

Tam-Tadam-ta-Tadam

Terrific – perfect for the theme – this is something I would count ! Great job mr_slava
(Next time give it a better name that’s easier to write and to remember)

Plenty of Purple by kevyn2992

Awesome picture dude.

The sponsor , or actually it was Mark Goodfield, The Blunt Bean Counter, wrote a summary of A Counting Exercise, and included  his favourite pics (almost none of which made it into the top ten) and a general overview of the attraction.

Message from Rob Campbell
We’re just a small photo contest website that is growing slowly, painfully slowly. There are a couple dozen real obvious things I want to change about the new site and the same amount again of irritating things that I know could be improved. But the fixes are happening every day now and will continue until they are all completed, hopefully by the fall… and then we will probably evolve again.
The Lenzr estore will be called The Lenzaar or maybe The Bazr, I haven’t quite decided yet. In there will be a smattering of our clients’ products that we know will make great prizes in the free Community Contests. These will be for sale as prizes – when you buy the prize, the contest is free.
Custom Widgets? Yes – we are real excited about the idea of being able to offer custom widgets that display either the most recent three pictures, or the top three pictures, or perhaps just your own three pictures on your own website or blog. You will also be able to select the contests you wish to chronicle in your sidebar widget – or banner – or button display.
API – the ultimate customization is to be able to put the Lenzr photo contest software module on your own website and collect votes and comments and make that page of your own website relevant – and it will forever host a database of well optimized images directly related to your company’s products or services.
Post your picture to Facebook? Yes, and Tweet individual photos of course this is going to be available. And a monthly newsletter
We endeavour to become the world’s best and most well known photo contest manufacturer.