When photo contest participants become photo contest winners, they write kind letters.

Hi Rob!

Wow and reWow! Fantastic news this morning! I’m so happy! This is sooooo cool!!!

What a great honor when we’re considering the always getting better quality of the submissions in contests. I’m starting my telescopic mast photo business right now and this prize will be more than welcome. The site is getting better day after day Rob. The one only photo by member in the Top Ten policy is a great improvement. You have so much nice contests right now. I really like to see prizes involving licensing. This is a great way to have visibility and expand the finality of the site.

You know that I’ve always been interested by your site concept and will continue to be an active member. I’d like to see it becoming more social and less competitive. But with nice prices like that it’s gonna be difficult I’ve met very nice people and good photographers in the LENZR environment. I think it‘s a great way to learn from each other and become better. I want to thank you personally to have always been so encouraging. I know your a man of word and I respect that.

I eventually like to invest myself in your project and maybe help to find a way to promote your idea in Quebec. I’m sure they’re a lot of sponsors who will be interested and photography is a big market here.

I’ve never forget your judge offer too. Let me know if I can do something for you, it will be my pleasure. I’m very very happy about what’s happening and want to thank everybody at Lenzr, I know you’ve always been behind me!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Martin

Back in the Colonial Times, the annual harvest would employ almost every able bodied person and occupy the minds of everyone in the community. The annual crop gathering dominated the calendar and was marked with parades, bake sales, and agricultural exhibits in fall fairs. The autumn occasion was a happy time.

Harvest is still celebrated with some reverence in small towns across Canada because these grassroots farm families are still the biggest stakeholders; they still depend on the harvest for their livelihood, and of course to some extent we all depend on their harvest for ours…

Depending on where you live in Canada, the season comes at different times and means different things. If you live in downtown Toronto, it won’t mean much, except local produce especially sweet corn is cheaper in the supermarket, but if you are living in Tilsonburg it will mean the tobacco harvest, and in Bala its time to pick the cranberries. In Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick they dig potatoes from red earth and in Kenora they harvest the finest wild rice. Show us these seasonal gatherings.

Nora Camps of Duo.ca is a brand strategy consultant for charitable foundations and not for profit organizations. She specializes in executing agricultural theme marketing initiatives for a brighter future on a greener planet. Over time she has articulated to me, and indeed demonstrated to me the power of her ‘high fidelity storytelling’, and how she uses print collateral and events to build an organization’s character. Adding the power of Lenzr photo contests to her already potent mixture of crowd sourcing and story gathering is a winning combination to create trans-media awareness for Duo.ca and Nora Camp’s unique brand personality consulting services.  On her website, Nora writes,

The process of revitalizing and the ongoing effort to maintain brand energy need not be expensive, but it does need to be conscious and purposeful. Think: Brand Personality.
Be unforgettable.   Let’s journey together.
Take a dose of brand proposition, brand story and brand culture and add a dash of WOW! and you will have brand personality. Add a triple bottom line for good measure. Your brand will not only be unstuck, it will be beloved, chosen first and retained.

Photo by Joe Wright while visiting the Strathcona Farmer's Market, Edmonton

The winning picture will be chosen by Nora Camps from the Top Ten user ranked images on Oct 26th 2011 . It will immediately be celebrated as the winner on the Lenzr blog and the photographer that uploaded this gem will be contacted, in due course, and offered an exclusive licensing agreement.  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION – the photo does not have to include humans. The photo does not have to be set in ‘autumn’ season. The picture should however be exterior and be wide angle and show some crop being harvested in some interesting manner.

One image will be licensed, and Nora respectfully asks to be the sole Judge whose task it is to select this image from the Top Ten user ranked grouping.  Nora will give the photographer full credit and $400 for an exclusive license for perpetuity throughout the universe for the one photo she selects.

Let go over the contest timeline again. This challenge launched Sept 1st 2011. Voting begins Oct 15th, and ends Oct  25th 2011 when the Top Ten photos advance to Judges. Contest ends Nov 1st – winner announced on the Lenzr blog.  Any questions? Comments? Feedback of any kind? Let me know.

Lenzr member seattledredge stopped by Lenzr headquarters in the Distillery District today to claim the highly-coveted prize she won last month in Lenzr’s What’s in the Fridge? photo contest: $500 in groceries! This contest was generously sponsored by a new printable coupons website that’s making waves in the Toronto area.

It was a popular contest and even resulted in a photo finish–a three-way tie! Since the Lenzr Judges cast their votes remotely, Rob Campbell and the Lenzr staff took the three final images to the streets and found four qualified and willing volunteer judges to come up with a tie-breaker (watch the video).

Two out of four of our street judges picked “Chilling in the Fridge” by Seattle (that’s her real name) featuring Taco, her pet rabbit, as her answer for “What’s in the Fridge?”

Seattle, who just moved into downtown Toronto on July 1, is studying geography at York University, and is an avid traveler. She writes about her many travel experiences and gives tips, particularly for female travelers, on her blog Seattle’s Travels. Check out her blog for travel advice and of course, exceptional photography–she’s headed to Iceland next month. In addition to her studies and travels, Seattle runs her own wedding photography company. Seattle’s quite a girl.

She says she was “excited and surprised” when her photo won. She had been expecting a third victory for last month’s double winner Silversurfer71, and really felt the real-time excitement Lenzr hooked her up with in watching the tie-breaker video.

At the No Frills by King and Parliament Seattle is in a unique position: nothing is too expensive for her today. But instead of filling her cart full of filet mignons or pulling chip bags off the shelves with wild abandon, she makes a very composed beeline for the produce section and begins to examine the lettuces, celery and carrots.

Taco, after all, sat in the fridge, looked cute, and won the votes of Lenzr members and judges–it’s only right that he have first dibs–and no one knows Taco’s preferences better than Seattle.

This isn’t the first Lenzr photo contest Seattle has won. A veteran Lenzr member, she won a trip to Vegas in the Portable Luxury contest back in July 2010 with her photo Portable City. One might think that a travel freak such as Seattle would have booked her trip the very next day, but Seattle’s a generous woman–she gave the prize to her mom for a 50th birthday present.

“I would still like to do Vegas,” she admitted. Her mom hasn’t redeemed the trip yet, but Seattle’s going to have her share her photos with Lenzr when she does.

She had to rush off to a job interview but not before posing with a grin in front of the Toronto skyline. Despite all the places she’s seen, Seattle includes Toronto in her top five favourite cities, along with Vancouver, Sorrento, Barcelona and Istanbul. Congratulations again, seattledredge!

Conflict is a photo contest on Lenzr, and story sauce on the internet.

The number one failure of boring public speakers, bad business presentations, and weak online storytelling is the lack of conflict.

Hero driven social media marketing is built on a dynamic relationship between two or more characters, and its most powerful when presented as a protagonist’s struggle against a formidable antagonist. The journey from problem to solution should be a storyful vessel filled with human emotion on a compelling character arc, cause that’s what people remember…

Smojoe Social Media Marketing in Toronto endeavours to do business without conflict, and all case studies proudly showcase positive and productive client relationships. But when composing good brand stories an Online Social Relevance Director, cognizant of his client’s best keywords, campaigns and community managers, should isolate and engineer the most interesting examples of ‘human business’ to achieve a myth making that fuels viral connectivity. And this should include conflict.

Conflict really will occur when voting begins on September 20th 2010;  its then we’ll see professional photographers and contesters line up their social networks to vote for their favourite pictures.  There will be elaborate vote fraud detection systems running right up until the contest ends on Oct 1st 2010. The highest ranked photo wins a Blackberry mobile phone.  Take pictures of conflict and upload them to Lenzr and you could WIN a Blackberry BOLD* 9700

Smojoe social media marketing uses Lenzr photo contests as a tool in their quest to build high quality social capital for their clients. The firm also authors Canada Blog Friends, and does blogger outreach through multiple channels in Canada and the United States.  This company authors compelling stories that intrigue humans and satisfy search engine robots.  Smojoe social media marketing always improves client search engine rankings – each story funnel is a punch of online social relevance.

There was some  controversy at the end  of the May June 2010 photo contests, but the  official results in the Lenzr machine are as follows:

Crowded Places had the most participation with 46 PHOTOS UPLOADED | TOTAL VOTES 1828.

Ve3bnw Bill Watson wins the brand new Blackberry Curve courtesy of Innate Media Group for having submitted the first place photo in the Crowded Places photo contest. Bill’s aerial photo of the Rockton Worlds Fair is quite interesting and was well received, collecting 270.2 points, the most in category.  The image was clearly taken from the sky, and so is most likely a product of Bill Watson’s remote controlled helicopter gunship and budding aerial photography business. This smart phone will certainly come in handy for the high flyer.

50 Going On 15 was won by Mommakoala, AKA Debbie Watson, Bill Watson’s wife. This long standing member of Lenzr is a Hamilton resident and part time nurse and passionate photographer. She takes imaginative pictures and has a knack for writing good titles and captions. Her ‘No Pesky Neighbours’ photo won the first Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest on Lenzr on November 1st 2009.

Portable Luxury was won by Seattledredge when Mommakoala’s photo was deleted by admin with only 15 minutes left in the competition.  It was indeed an ugly finish to what had been a close struggle. This strange but not unwarranted eventuality is explained in great detail in What Happened to Mommakoala’s Candy Stash? The account proferred along with an apologetic  explanation and rare glimpse into the world of the Lenzr admin. Remember we are all trying to achieve something that has never occurred before, a perfectly democratic contest community where business sponsors art.

The contest itself collected a lot of very strange and amusing ideas relating to our human notions of luxury, and what it means to move your comfort zone. There were 17 PHOTOS UPLOADED | TOTAL VOTES 680.  The Portable Luxury photo contest started late and that’s why the numbers were relatively low, but the prize is the greatest gift that has ever been shared by the site admin on the behalf of Lenzr’s most generous sponsor to date.

Seattledredge plus one guest have won three days and

two nights in Las Vegas courtesy of a portable toilet rentals business in Toronto ItsMyPotty.com

There’s an art to creating good content on the web; its substance over style here at Lenzr – we admire web content portals that inform readers using an interesting perspective and tone of voice. And we’re always looking around and reading other people’s blogs and scrutinizing other people’s websites (esp photo contest sites), as we surf the net looking for information and opportunities.

This summer lots of people over 50 years old will probably become more aware of Tempo Toronto an online magazine stuffed to the spine with stories and coupons and contests shaped for their demographic. That age group is hard to target, and even harder to please.

Tempo Toronto will satisfy them. Its a decision maker’s magazine that chronicles the sophisticated lifestyles of fascinating people over 50 years old and living and working in the city. Stuffed full of advanced fashion tactics, high class art and photos and links to gorgeous sexy fashion designers like Catherine Curtis. Last month the magazine covered the LG Fashion Week and focused on the Lundström Collection with exclusive pictures and quality journalism. The web portal also reviews Toronto restaurants, theatres and the latest books by bestselling Canadian authors. And of course there’s recipes, coupons, links to contests, and profiles of other people – lifestyles of other cool fifty year old people, musicians and artists and investment bankers.

The 50 Going On 15 photo contest on Lenzr is destined to capture the most courageous 50 year olds riding mountain bikes, motorbikes and driving muscle cars. Show us folks with a little grey in their hair acting years younger, water skiing, snowboarding, or running for their cars in a rain storm. The best pictures will show people in action, doing something outrageous.

The prize is outrageous. It’s a wheelbarrow full of dark chocolate. No kidding – the prize in this Lenzr photo contests is over 50 pounds of pure chocolate, supplied by Chocolicks, Toronto chocolate located at 573 Eglinton Ave west in the heart of Forest Hill.

You might ask yourself, what am I going to do with that much chocolate? We agree it’s a problem. But it’s a nice problem to have.

May 1st 2010 came with a BANG! Traffic to the website was the heaviest it has ever been leading up to the conclusion of the March / April 2010 photo contests. Everyone was anxious to see who won the prizes!

The March April 2010 photo contests on Lenzr were well trafficked. It’s a common opinion that the overall quality of the photography was arguably the best it has ever been, and the number of comments was significantly higher than previous totals.

Toronto Party Rentals employee wins Backyard Party Events

Here at Lenzr, we see something new in every round of contests, and this past session was no exception. John Kenyon the marketing manager at Absolute Tent and Event Services, the Toronto party rentals warehouse on 185 eastern ave, won his own contest.

For the first time ever, the contest sponsor won the prize, and there is no rule against that happening! Remember this website is 100% user driven and so if the sponsors can rally enough support behind their own photography, then they win the prize same as anyone else – there’s no judge or jury to reverse the decision.

Backyard Party Events was otherwise a very cool photo contest filled with images of birthdays and BBQs and even some wedding pictures and Bar Mitzvahs. The challenge was designed to collect party pictures and be dominated by party people that rent the big stuff and make big splashes – we asked to see some legendary events that will ‘stand the test of time’. Admittedly the winning photo entitled Only three remain is exactly what the sponsor had in mind when they commissioned the competition.

The winner is jkenyon, John Kenyon who is the head of marketing at the Toronto party rentals warehouse that sponsored the contest. The picture shows the dregs of a big summer bash, with cool event lighting from a mixture of sources. And there is a gentle hint of story, which makes this image so compelling. It won on its own merits.

The good news is that John Kenyon and everyone at Absolute Tent and Event Services, including Laura the blogger in the warehouse, is incredibly honest and morally fibourous. They couldn’t sleep at night if they thought they’d deprived contesters of a decent prize.

So the 10×10 Pop-up Tent and $500 gift certificate prize will go to the second place photo seen here, entitled, He really “nailed” that pig! This runner-up is equally excellent and was uploaded by a member Sausma1, who is a very prolific Lenzr participant, and one of the same crew that won the VIP Locaboire wine tour in the spring. (If you read that blog post below, you can see her in the in the extreme right hand side of the wine tour group photo) Sausam1 is actually Dr. Sandra Ausma, and in addition to having a PhD and a great eye for pictures, she now also possesses a 10×10 Pop-up Tent, and $500 Gift Certificate good for the rental of anything in Absolute Tent and Event Services catalog. Good win Dr Ausma! We look forward to seeing some pics of you inside that tent!

Sasuma1 also wins the Fire and Ice photo contest

The Fire and Ice photo contest on Lenzr was probably the coolest theme so far in 2010, and will be no doubt be referenced by photographers and artists for many years to come.

There were 26 photos uploaded in this challenge, and 633 votes cast. Yes it was a reasonably hot competition, as so many photographers were eager to show off their fire photography skills.

Nobody was more delighted with the results of the contest than Steve Hamoen, the geothermal design and installation business owner from southern Ontario that sponsored the challenge. On some level this contest got people thinking about how geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly energy alternative. Historically this energy source has been limited to only a very few areas of the globe, like Iceland and Banff Alberta Canada. But that’s all changed now.

Recent technological breakthroughs have dramatically expanded the range and size of this viable new resource, especially for applications such as home heating, and in particular floor warming. Since the contest launched, Steve Hamoen has started his own blog. Check out the Geothermal Installers Blog and you will see a true Canadian hero with his feet in the dirt, out standing in his field, being an expert in real time.

Lenzr member Sausma1, the same member that placed second in Backyard Party Events challenge and claimed the tent prize by default, won this photo contest as well. The image is right on target, it shows fire and ice garnished with a human subject and a modicum of story.

Sasuma wins a GeoAir PCO air purifier

Dr. Sandra Ausma is probably the perfect candidate to appreciate the benefits of Photo Catalytic Oxidation (PCO) and the resultant clean air. Bacteria, viruses, mold spores don’t stand a chance ariund this machine and are destroyed when they come into contact with the system’s 187 square-inch Ti02 grid. All volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are destroyed. The system is cost-effective, maintenance-free and provides maximum energy efficiency with negligible resistance to airflow.

Unlike existing air cleaning systems that rely solely on ultraviolet light, the GeoAir PCO device integrates a titanium dioxide semiconductor to leverage photocatalytic oxidation allowing it to vaporize indoor air pollutants, including those that cause odors, and break them down into non-toxic products like C02 and H20.

Toronto business phones

Obsolete Office Equipment was kindly ignored by most folks, in keeping with how most people feel about old and used technology that’s out-of-date, slow or cumbersome to use. The sponsor asked to see pictures of stuff that slows office workers down, and contributes to loss of productivity – overtime having obsolete equipment can cripple a business, esp old telephones and obsolte telecommunications devices.

The contest only had 8 photos uploaded, but accrued 1861 votes! which is strange. And although this web challenge was less succesful than Everyday Tangled Web which broke records for the number of photos and votes, the result was the same – the contest brought lots of traffic and exposure to the sponsor, a business telephones system designer and installer in Tornoto Ontario.

And like other contest sponsors, James Stortz the CEO of S.E. Telecom has also just started blogging on his new S.E. Telecom Blog. The WordPress arena was facilitated by Toronto web developer Innate Media Group, the sidebar widgets and style come from the pimp my blog shop of Smojoe social media marketing.

The winner was an picture of vintage typewriter – content worthy of Dumpdiggers the photo was taken by dausma and she appears to be friends with, and quite possibly related to Sandra Ausma.

The Prize is a 4 Line office telephone AT&T Model 1070. This state-of-the-art communication device has 4 line speakerphone & answering system capability. With Caller ID / Page / Intercom / Call transfer / Expandable to 16 stations / 32 # speed dial / 3 party conference / 6 number redial, it has so many wonderful functions!

Slimmswitch wins Electric Lawnmower from Grass Cutting Company

The How Green Are You? photo challenge was the premier event in last session’s of Lenzr. The challenge collected 27 photos which garnered 1592 votes. Almost all of the images are entirely focused on green subjects, and most have a smattering of story that share insights into the green energy industry and reminders of all the little things that we as a society can do to make a difference.

Sponsored by a solar powered grass cutting business in Toronto Ontario, curious members can read about the company on their grass cutting blog and see pictures of their bio fuel trucks and lawnmower trailers adorned with adjustable solar panels. The firm proudly offers a sustainable, organic service that is also a relatively silent; their Neuton battery powered lawnmowers are very quiet. This service is just finding its legs in the GTA, and needs public support to achieve its true potential.

The contest really did collect a wide array of one sentence stories and snapshots of eco friendly ideas for the benefit of all humanity. And on May 1st 2010, a Lenzr member named Slimmswitch won the prize.

How Green Are You?

Slimmswitch is another regular player on the site. Last fall he placed second in Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest, which was arguably the most successful lenzr photo contest of all time with over 70 pictures uploaded and over 3000 votes collected.

The How Green Are You? photo contest was very competitive, and there was a real fight between Slimmswitch and another member named Johnny who had a photo wth over 300 votes. Its no secret, these individuals promoted their images on other social networks. Behind the scenes, Slimmswitch used twitter to wrangle votes from friends, while Johnny had posts on other contest social networks funneling participation in exchange for him helping support other people’s endeavours. Some members emailed me to complain – they believe this takes away from the spirit of the contest, and results in poor quality photos winning the grand prize, but from a marketing point of view it’s exactly what the sponsors most wants; they love it when particpants promote their pictures because they make the make the message go ‘viral’.

Neuton CE6 battery powered lawn mower.

Slimmswitch wins the Neuton CE 6 Battery-Powered Mower with DURACELL® battery technology and judging by the comments and chorus of support there will be a lot of friends asking to borrow the equipment. The battery has 360 watt-hours of life and the Neuton CE 6 mower can cut a third of an acre which is approx 15,000 sq. ft. on a single charge.

Great win Slimmswitch!

On Saturday March 13th 2010, The Wine Ladies, myself Rob Campbell, and Dave Dingle of Shrinkray,  hosted the winners of two Lenzr photo contests and together enjoyed a Locaboire wine tour of Prince Edward County, Ontario.

The winner of Macro Photos of Life, Bill Watson ve3bnw and his wife Debbie, joined the winner of Best Gourmet Food Sandra Ausma sausma1 and her companion Johnny Cochrane.

Locaboire Wine Tour of Prince Edward Co.

The wines of Prince Edward Co have gained prominence over the last decade, which is remarkable considering most of the vineyards in the area didn’t exist fifteen years ago. This is still a very young wine region, but the idea is maturing as viticulturists are now producing excellent products.

Partly because of its soft and friable calcareous limestone soil, and partly due to assiduous care on the part of its winemakers who have learned how to protect their vines each winter to shelter the tender primary buds from killing cold, the vines have endured and excelled in tastings all over the world.

We all met up at The Timberhouse

Lenzr attracts an interesting mix of people, and our assembly was a terrific cross section of contest participants and colourful sponsors; there was great chemistry right from the beginning.

Everyone was surprised to find a stretch limousine waiting for us outside the  Timberhouse Resort in Brighton Ontario.  Some local vintages were waiting inside, with more down the road. The wine started flowing from the moment we all climbed aboard.

From left to right, Rob Campbell, Dave Dingle, Michell Walkau, Susanne and Georgia – The Wine Ladies, Debbie (MommaKoala), Johnny Cochrane and Dr. Sandra Ausma at The Grange Winery – that’s Caroline Granger pouring Trumpours Mill, 2007 Pinot Noir. Photos by Bill Watson (Ve3bnw) check ve3bnw Flickr stream for more pics.

The Locaboire Wine Tour started at The Grange

The prize winners enjoyed a short (hot) drive in a long limousine through the brown landscape of Prince Edward County in Eastern Ontario, and past some very old properties with dilapidated barns and overgrown stone fences. i though I saw some wild apple trees – all that remains of the orchards that were planted on every farm in the area in the early 1800s. This region boasts some of the oldest settlements in Ontario and the wineries people are quite connected to their history.

This is a blossoming wine country in the springtime of its existence and our tour visited three of the twenty wineries that are here now; ten more vineyards have planted grapes and hope to establish themselves in the near future.

Ten minutes into the expedition our limousine turned off the paved road and gingerly traversed down a muddy sideroad, over Dorland Creek, and past a 19th century  farmhouse to stop outside The Grange winery.

Inside a cozy wooden barn we met Caroline Granger who, along with her father Bob Granger, owns the property and facilities.   This family manages six different vineyards, with six different varietals – they harvest 180 tonnes of grapes every year.

Caroline was great and The Wine Ladies really liked her – Susanne and Georgia unpacked their signature oversized wine glasses, and we shot three segments for The Wine Ladies TV show in three different locations on the property.

Caroline was very down to earth as she related the history of her property – the farm is 200 years old and was once the location of a chicken canning business which packed under the label Meadowvale farms.  The chicken cannery was quite succesful in the early 1900s and printed material still exists that show the goods were sold in the market of the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto.  Caroline Granger was born and raised on the property, she described how she plowed the fields when she was a little girl and  The Wine Ladies in particular were very impressed with her – they remarked afterward how genuine it is for the proprietor of a winery to be so well connected to the climate and soil, the terrior of the region.

Next Stop, Closson Chase – 629 Closson Rd, Hillier Ontario

At 3:30 pm the Locaboire wine tour continued down the road to Closson Chase.

Its no secret, these vineyards was founded by and are still owned and managed by a smattering of Canadian film and television celebrities, most notably Sonia Smits. The first test plots were planted in 1998 and the winery itself was founded in 1999.

This destination was a perfect exercise in serious wine tasting as Lynn Carmichael explained that Closson has two properties. The grape vines on their farm in Niagara are 30 years old, while the vines grown here in Eastern Ontario come from vines that are less than six years old. We tasted the difference as we sampled the Chardonnay – one glass was from 6 yr old vines, and other from 30 yr old vines. We savoured the contrast, and came to understand more about the structure of wine in general. It was a good education, and great exercise.

All of the wine we consumed on the Locaboire tour was of course Estate Bottled which means the wine was produced from grapes grown on the farm, or by the estate.

Locaboire Wine Tour ends at RoseHall Run

The final destination on our Locaboire wine tour was Rosehall Run at 1241 Greer Rd Wellington Ontario where we met Dan Sullivan who is both the winemaker and vineyard manager. He is a lifetime student of the art of making good wine (in large batches) and has been honing his craft for almost fifteen years. This guy is super passionate about his life’s work and very hands on, eager to discuss the smallest details of his craft. At one point he stood over a pump and explained how the mechanism could move whole grapes to the press without breaking or bruising the fruit. He also lectured on the experience of setting up the winery itself, and the geology of the soil as evidenced in the barrel cellar, which was hewn out of the same limestone that makes the grapes so delicious.

This walk about Rosehall Run got most interesting down in the barrel cellar where Dan did a great interview with The Wine Ladies. The group tasted several different wines , including 2008 Sullyzwicker rose and red, and a syrah that was made from grapes grown on a neighbour’s property, Steven Singer the viticuluralist of nearby Fieldstone.

The Timberhouse

That evening, at the Timberhouse we tucked into an incredible feast accompanied by the wines we enjoyed throughout the day. The chef prepared a feast fit for visiting monarchs, and indeed that’s certainly how we felt about ourselves at that time.

The Dinner Menu at The Timberhouse

First a small bowl of sautéed shrimp in Tai sauce garnished with diced pepers and strawberries on a tuft of vermicelli laying on a big piece of Swiss Chard.

Second course was a crisp  salad of assorted greens, with tomato wedges and cucumbers smothered in raspberry vinagrette

Third course and entree featured bacon wrapped Fillet Mignon in a herb compound butter with rosemary roasted potatoes an fresh vegetables.

All this was followed by a delicious homemade chocolate cake for desert.

The wines we drank at dinner include,

Rosehall Run 2007 VQA Pinot Noir
Rosehall Run 2007 Riesling
Rosehall Run 2007 Cabernet Franc
Rosehall Run 2007 Gewurztraminer
The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards 2008 Trumpour’s Mill Gamay Noir
Closson Chase 2007 Chardonnay VQA Prince Edward County
Redtail Vineyard 2007 Pinot Gris
Redtail Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir
Huff Estates 2008 VQA Riesling Off-Dry

Georgia and Susanne are very knowledgeable oenophiles (wine lovers) that have a wine radio show, a wine tv show, and a wine blog.

The Wine Ladies share their passion for wine, food and living life to the fullest, without hesitation. Their motto, “everything in life somehow comes back to the vine,” keeps audiences entertained and informed, because in their lives its especially true.

You can listen to The Wine Ladies every Sunday morning at 8:30am on The Jewel Network Jewel Radio which is Jewel 88.5 FM in Toronto and Jewel 98.5 FM in Ottawa as they host special guests from all walks of life on their weekly lifestyle radio show.  Watch The Wine Ladies live on the air Wednesday afternoon at 2:30pm-3:30pm for their internet TV/Radio show on ThatChannel.com and call in live at 416.204.9723 from anywhere in the world to speak with The Wine Ladies and their guests.

The Wine Ladies entertain Toronto’s top chefs, and Canada’s foremost winemakers, sommeliers, and culinary artists.  These ladies have shared special vintages with famous musicians, politicians and athletes, and actors like Canadian comedian and wine investor Dan Akyroyd, and Fashion Televisions’ Jeanne Beker. They just did a spot with dynamo Gary Vaynerchuk from WineLibraryTV, and even shared a glass with mega entrepreneur Jim Treliving of Boston Pizza International and Dragon’s Den fame.  Industry executives might recognize Jackson Triggs’ wine maker Marco Picolli, and Canadian wine icon Rossana Magnotta. But enough name dropping, they came to Lenzr to fund a contest that gathers up Canada’s best gourmet food pictures, to draw attention to their media, and share a Locaboire adventure with the winners.

This Lenzr photo contest, like others, gives storytellers permission to use the caption to hint at the subtleties of the experience behind the images. Tell us about the strange sights, smells and sounds of the kitchen, the cries of the lobster, the tang of the mustard, the pique of mint jelly and the mouthwatering experience of biting into a….

Best Gourmet Food is a license to tell stories about great cuisine. Stretch the experience beyond the beauty of your photography, and tell us why your image really is the best gourmet food.

Readers of this blog, photographers, Lenzr members and friends know that this website is a work in progress. We are starting something here, and with bold intentions we are trying to perfect a mechanism that efficiently ‘harnesses business to make art’.  Already the success of our enterprise has proven that buzz marketing attached to a photo contest is a healthy way for any company and especially local business to tell consumers the specifics of their offering and share branded content and user submitted photo genius through an expanding social network.

But all is not perfect. There are problems that need to be remedied and the biggest issue seems to be the manner by which the winning photo is selected.

As you know on Lenzr, there are two qualities of votes. To encourage more participation, we have opted to have a popular vote that does not require registration, and yet we have a registered vote that is more powerful.  In the last set-up the registered vote was worth five times more than a popular vote.  In the new equation it will be worth 10x more than a popular vote, and members will have to have uploaded a photo before they can cast a registered vote. Newly registered members that have not uploaded a photo or if their photo has been deleted, will find their registered votes actively or retroactively rescinded into popular votes.

Another factor is the number of votes, and this is where we went wrong last contest period. The weight was too high and the members who uploaded their images first received the lion’s share of audience participation and won by sheer volume of votes, both low and high scores.  In the new algorithm, the # of votes will still count, but only be worth half as much.

Slimmswitch wrote us an email last week and said,  “Maybe another suggestion would be to allow both the registered user and anonymous user to only be able to vote on one photo per day as opposed to every photo? as people might get others to vote a terrible score on every other photo.  I think this would make voting more accurate as people will be forced to vote more honestly.” Our response: Although we agree that limiting the # of votes per day would force people to be selective and discriminating, we think it would be too limiting, and severely affect participation numbers, which is a metric intricately connected to our sponsorship sales efforts.

# of Comments Here at Lenzr we have decided to add another variable to our increasingly complex formula. Now we are adding # of comments to the equation. Each comment will be considered a positive addition to the photo selection metrics.

SUMMARY of the new LENZR SCORING ALGORITHM

The winning photo on Lenzr will now be selected by a combination of Registered Votes and Popular votes, whereby Registered Votes are worth 10x more than Popular Votes. The total numbers of votes each photo receives will be halved and this amount added to the equation.  And finally the # of comments will collected and added to the scoring with each comment being worth one perfect or 10/10 registered vote.

Lets try that, and see where we are in sixty days. Your feedback is appreciated.