Getting a great shot of soapy bubbles is a lot harder than one can expect. For The Soapy Foam and Bubbles contest try to capture the fluffy soft angle of this contest. Don’t just think soap bar, but think, heroic bacteria killing item that has rescued you from harmful infections. Capture the inspiration behind your favorite hard working soap.

What you need to know:

This shot must tell a story. Think outside the box. It can be a young boy washing his dog, or a child washing their hands after playing in the sand. Try to capture the beauty of cleanliness.

Our Sponsor:

SilveRboard Rigid Foam Insulation is sponsoring this contest. Rigid foam insulation is a flat-sheet insulation material that’s coated with a layer of BASF reflective lamination on both sides and made from Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). When these materials are combined they become a highly effective insulation barrier offering a higher r-value per inch compared to traditional flat-sheet insulation, plus a built-in moisture and air barrier which eliminates the need for house wrap.

The Prize:

The prize is a Sony laptop. I know, we always do have the best prizes attached to a funfest of contests. So lather up in enthusiasm and get in the groove of photo taking. Voting starts March 15th 2011 and ends on March 25th 2011. From there our judges will deliberate and the winner will be announced April 1st 2011. Check out our post on our judges to learn more about what impresses them. Lenzr is open to all Canadians, contest not valid in Quebec.

Don’t forget to have fun!

One of the best things about the summer season is the fact that it is patio season. Getting to relax with friends and enjoy the heat of the sun while drinking a chilled beverage is the highlight of most days. Here at Lenzr we want to celebrate that time with you and find out, once and for all, who truly has the Best Patio in Canada.

What makes a patio special:

What makes a great patio? Is it the scenery? The music? Or is it quality outdoor furniture? We are ecstatic about this contest because it makes this frigid winter season tolerable. Knowing that the green grass and warm sun of summer is just around the corner puts a permanent smile on our faces.

Best Patio in Canada is sponsored by Velago patio furniture:

Velago patio furniture is known for selling high quality patio furniture and outdoor umbrellas for low prices. Their products are unique and affordable. Their furniture sets are in demand because they are made from durable all-weather resin wicker. Their products can stand they toughest weather conditions because they are built to last.

The Prize:

The winner of this contest wins a beautiful outdoor bistro table for two. The bistro table is made with resin wicker and supplied by our sponsor Velago patio furniture. Your picture must celebrate outdoor photography. Don’t forget to tell us about the décor, signature drinks, and what makes it special to you. Voting starts March 15^th 2011 and ends on March 25^th 2011. From there our judges will deliberate and the winner will be announced April 1^st 2011. Check out our post on our judges to learn more about what impresses them. Lenzr is open to all Canadians, contest not valid in Quebec.

Good luck, we look forward to the summer and your pictures of course.

Before we can create, publish and promote this session’s many diverse photo contests we have to describe how the addition of Judges changes Lenzr. The timeline is one element that was affected – now voting starts five days earlier and ends five days earlier to allow time for the Judges to make their decisions. To preserve the smooth operation of Lenzr, its honour and integrity, this blog post will document how the processes ends and how one photograph will eventually win the prize.  The Lenzr Judges collectively decide the prize winner from the top ten finalists – that’s going to be really exciting.

How Does The Panel of Judges Decide Lenzr Photo Contest Winners?

On March 25th 2011 the voting on all pictures, in all contests will come to a dramatic conclusion as a Top Ten grouping is locked down in each unique photo challenge. A new message will then appear beneath all photos that says, ‘Voting has ended – Judges are deliberating. The Winner will be announced April 1st 2010’. At that time all Lenzr Judges will be prompted to visit the site and investigate the Top Ten user submitted, and user ranked images in each category. They will submit two numbers in reference to each contest – the first number will correspond to the picture they like best, followed by their second choice.

This data will be collected and published (with the Judges being represented by numbers and not names) to maintain as much transparency as possible. Yes the possibility exists that I, Rob Campbell the Master admin could change the numbers. Yes I could secretly affect the decision, but I can assure you, on my honour that isn’t going to happen. One thing that Lenzr has proven over and over again in the last year and a half, is that any photo can win (regardless of quality! LOL) as long as there’s no evidence of cheating.

The Lenzr Judges

The creation and implementation of a body of designated judges is the single greatest innovation to Lenzr since its birth in August 2009. This post will remain open and will be updated as more knowledge about just  who exactly these people are, and what they like … Lenzr is looking for celebrity judges. Are you a photographer, editor, or journalist of note? Please contact us. In the distant future there may be dozens of Judges, and Lenzr may have an entire Judges Community and a separate login for such professionals.

Jacques Surveyor

Jacques Surveyer is a web developer and photographer from Cobourg, and now Warkworth, Ontario. He’s a digital craftsman who really does create images, first in his camera, and than at home on his computer.

He’s a new ‘old friend of Lenzr’ that I first met when he came down to our office for a job interview in Oct 2010.  He didnt get the position – but I dont think he even wanted it. I remember we were in awe at how well he can talk tech and how much he loves using colour in his pictures, and how much knowledge he has about photo finishing and using effects software. Just last month Jacques Surveyer was profiled in Canada Blog Friends and this is a great place to really read up on him, and drill down on his core being. There’s lots of links here to his photo blogs, which are quite popular and full of great ideas. Jacques does exceptional travel journalism; he’s fond of creating destination review blogs. He created Pix of Detroit, Pix of Toronto, and Pix of Canada to host the photos and stories of his adventures abroad.

Chris Kovacs of Dark Shutter Photography

Chris Kovacs is a professional photographer who runs Dark Shutter Photography. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1976, and currently lives with his wife and two sons in Vancouver, British Columbia. He’s a very popular fellow with lots of friends on Facebook.

Chris Kovacs is a Lenzr winner turn Judge. In December 2010 he bagged a Toshiba Netbook for uploading and promoting a black and white photo called No Trespassing in the Broken Factories photo contest.

So now of course he can’t compete in the Lenzr photo contests anymore, and we’ll all miss his signature black and white contributions. Chris chooses this black and white approach because he finds it less distracting than color. “Black and white images let the eye wander with the lines and shapes that make up the mood and feeling in my images.” He writes on his website, and adds, ‘I find that textures as seen in a black and white photograph contrast in such a way that they exude a sense of peace within a rugged place, for example the look of weathered rocks against a calm ocean as seen in a black and white image opens a calmness within me.’ And that’s pretty cool.

Brian Stirling, Joan Stirling

Two judges in one stop here – Brian Stirling and Joan Stirling are the proprietors of Stirling Home Studio and the sponsors of the On Stage at Home photo contest.

Lenzr is lucky to have these distinguished members of the Toronto Arts and Design community upon which to call for such ‘special duty’, and we’re even luckier they agreed to do it.

Two very established and highly respected art decorators / interior designers with a busy home staging business in the most metropolitan market in Canada are now sitting on Lenzr’s Panel of Judges. They’re celebrity home stagers and their work is exceptional.

Can you imagine the people in their Rolodex? After twenty years as interior decorators and designers they would know everyone – they’d know all the artists and antique dealers and furniture store managers that supply then with home furnishings, and they must have all manner of exotic clients, and busy real estate agents who count on their experienced eyes and dependable service; now Lenzr members can be confident of the same. In Brian and Joan Stirling we get two sharp minds with a lifetime of knowledge in The Arts.

Marc Gendron

Marc runs In The Eye of The Lens. He has been taking pictures since about 1988, working originally in B&W, he practiced something he calls ‘street level photography’. Eventually he switched to colour photography, and then calmed down and concentrated on family events, vacation shots and some wedding photography. In 2001, Marc changed careers and went into graphic design and bought his first digital camera. The creativity of graphic design awoke Marc’s latent zeal photography, and he’s been retraining ever since. He does freelance graphic designer, photo modification/repair and commercial photography to pay the bills and he works on astrophotography and macrophotography to feed his creative side. When he’s not behind a lens, he’s a father of two.

Marc has been involved in forums for close to a decade now, administrating forums with primary topics such as music, role-playing games and general chat.

Marc Gendron’s newest foray into discussion forums is a place called In the Eye of the Lens, started with a small group of friends. Here they’re hoping to attract photographers from amateur to professional to share their pictures, stories, tips, tricks and traps. On Feb 2nd 2011 Marc is quoted as saying, “…the website is still in it’s first faltering steps, and needs a design work-over, but we’ve got to start somewhere, eh?” and that’s the spirit of innovation that Lenzr embodies and embraces and encourages in everyone else.

All that wonderful and exciting stuff we talked about earlier is just around the corner. Feb. 1^st marks the day for new photo contests like On Stage at Home, sponsored by Stirling Home Studio. Send your pictures in for a chance to win a beautiful animal skin rug. That rug could be the missing detail which adds the final touches to your own personal stage at home.

What Qualifies You for the Win?:

The objective of your picture is entertainment indoors. You must have an audience present, dogs are welcomed but they can’t make up the whole party, so make sure to invite your human friends as well. It could be a dinner party, a rock band party with you singing the lead (of course) or anything that entices your creative juices. This one is a bit tough because entertaining others indoors can be pretty specific. To avoid any confusion, please make sure to include an interesting sentence about your event for extra points.

Celebrating Indoor Photography:

We want you to celebrate indoor photography with us. Home stagers displays are unique and bring out a creative edge in everyone. Because of that, we are really looking forward to seeing your originality and how you choose to express yourself. Show us your idea of a great home stager. In could be moving you sofa around, decorating your walls, or getting rid of things that you don’t use anymore. Think cute yet comfortable, and if there happens to be some funny faces in there we will not judge you personally. Well, yes we will but you will be getting extra points for making us and our judges laugh.

On stage at home is sponsored by Stirling Home Studio:

Stirling Home Studio transforms your home into any buyer’s dream. They are leaders in the market and are known for their delicate and exquisite taste. Homes staged by them sell within the first week and for multiple attractive asking prices. They will sell your home for what it’s worth. They also happen to be one of Lenzr judges for the month of February contests.

The Prize:

The prize for the contest is a breathtaking zebra animal skin rug. It is not real animal skin, because here at Lenzr we do not support animal cruelty. The rug will cover 20ft in floor space and add the final touches to any décor.

We look forward to checking out your photos, contest launches Feb. 1^st and voting lasts for 10 days starting on March 15^th. Let the snapping and designing begin.

PETS IN WINTER COATS photo contest winner heidip, her husband Ken, and canine family member Rocco proudly display their red electric snow blower. The LENZR photo contest requested photographers of all levels to submit pictures of their pets in their winter fashion outfits. Many of us have canine family members in society today and take measures to protect them. This contest celebrated the protection from extreme temperatures and inclement weather necessary for our furry family in the Canadian winter climates. Looking at the Lenzr contest photo submissions for the Pets in Winter Coats challenge, you can see the best outfit compliments their friendly personalities and also keeps them warm and safe. Well, Heidip’s photo of her beagle Rocco proved to be smartly dressed for the prairie winter. He was definitely dressed to impress with his knit sweater and bundled scarf.

Voting began on November 20, 2010 and the highest ranked photo won the Craftsman snow blower prize when the contest ended December 1, 2010. The contest was open to all Canadians age 13 years and older. The photograph of Rocco proved to be a favourite of the viewers with a final score of 1017.7 votes. The whole Pets in Winter Coats photo contest attracted 3500 votes and had 19 photos submissions.

This photo contest was sponsored by an exceptional snow removal company The Snowmen, servicing Pickering, Ajax and Whitby in south eastern Ontario. They’re well staffed and equipped to plow everything from the smallest residential driveway to the largest commercial parking lots.

The Snow Blower Prize arrived Dec 28th, 2010

The prize winner, Heidi Pawluk and her dog waited in anticipation for their snow blower in their Winnipeg home. “What better time than now for our Canadian winter” said Heidi. When asked about the arrival of her snow blower prize to Winnipeg she had mentioned that the Craftsmen snow blower arrived and her hubby Ken and pooch Rocco eagerly put it together. Rocco the beagle photo model had to help out in the easy assembly as well by having his nose in every part sniffing with sheer delight of the future winter possibilities with the new snow blower. Heidi said that Craftsmen snow blower was quite easy to assemble with straight forward instructions and is light-weight and easy to use. She also claimed that the fact that it’s electric was another fantastic feature that she loved. One just plugs it in and was all set to go, and of course it is environmentally friendly. Heidi’s husband Ken is looking forward to using the snow blower in their snowy city on the Canadian prairies. Canine Rocco is even more delighted than Ken because he will be able to clear some amazing paths through the snow for this furry hound to explore during the winter blizzard months. “Clearing the snow will be a breeze with this great win of a Craftsmen snow blower” said Ken.

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.

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.

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.

Located in Toronto, EcoDeckBuilder is an environmentally sustainable deck building company that uses all manner of green building solutions both on and off their job sites. Their energy efficient trucks pull equipment trailers adorned with solar panels. These solar ‘work units’ are fully equipped with emission free, battery powered tools. The sun’s energy propels the team’s battery powered saws and drills, compressors and other construction devices. These guys really are friendly space age builders with great deck designs and powerful imaginations.

People Building Things photo contest is an old idea that stems from a natural fascination humans have watching other people work, especially if they are building something interesting. The contest reminds us of a story about how the final stages of the CN tower assembly used to stop traffic in downtown Toronto as citizens admired the helicopters installing the uppermost sections of this monolithic structure.

Construction sites are even more interesting when they happen at home, in the backyard, or on the driveway in front of the garage. Show us people building parade floats and fishing boats, or doing an interesting home renovation. Perhaps you have pictures of people building a tree house? or putting in a dock, or constructing a veranda or even building new homes and cottages?

Ontario photographers submit your own pictures of People Building Things and tell us the story behind the picture. Be sure and mention what’s being put together. Tell us all where the picture came from and when, and you could Win An iPad courtesy of Eco Deck Builder, an Ontario deck building company. Voting begins September 20th 2010 and the highest ranked photograph automatically wins the prize when the Contest ends October 1st, 2010. Must be 13yrs old or older to enter, open to all Canadians, excluding Quebec.

Eco Deck Builder job sites are quieter than your neighbours’ pool, and their green building techniques let everyone enjoy nature.

Citizens of Planet Earth, stop using gas and diesel generators! Solarline Power strongly objects to anyone mixing oil and gas to make the blue smoke exhaust in dirty two cycle engines.  With very few exceptions, two cycle engines should not be used for any reason! Solarline Power makes and assembles portable solar power generators (PSG’s) that are quiet and deliver clean renewable power. These units charge batteries that can replace small engines as a power source on a great many industrial tools.

SolarLine’s Mobile Solar Work Units deliver remote power for outdoor rock concerts, field hospitals and remote construction sites. This company works diligently to make solar powered battery charging systems for the next generation of power tools and battery powered devices that will replace gas and diesel generators, and banish all two cycle engines to the history books.

Green power is affordable, especially solar power because of the low maintenance costs and lengthy product guarantees – each solar panel on a Solarline Mobile Solar Work Unit is guaranteed for 25 years, and the batteries are guaranteed for 8 years by their manufacturers.  So when consumers factor in the long term costs of fuel and upkeep, solar powered systems and devices are good investments.

Solar powered calculators and wrist watches have been with us for many years.  The future will bring many more such handy solar powered devices to  North American households.

Morning Sunshine photo contest on Lenzr – Ontario photographers are asked to capture people and objects in the early morning sunshine. Voting begins September 20th 2010, the highest ranked photo will automatically Win an Apple iPad prize when the web challenge ends October 1st 2010, must be 13yrs old or older to enter, open to all Canadians, excluding Quebec.

Special thanks to Michael Reichmann, the Ontario photographer who generously allowed us to use his  Sunrise_Barn photo for the primary contest plate, here’s the host Ontario photography gallery where we found this beautiful gem.

Cinematographers call late afternoon the ‘Golden Hour’ and Hollywood movie scenes are sometimes lensed in the hours just before sunset – Thelma and Louise for example, can you remember Sigorney Weaver’s glowing hair in those the driving scenes in their stolen convertible car? That’s a great example of golden hour photography. By contrast the early morning light is called ‘Magic Hour’ and although not as popular, its often even more spectacular because of the beautiful light that first trespasses through the Earth’s cool atmosphere at dawn. Those first rays of light glow the fresh morning mists and ignite the dew drops on the leaves; they celebrate the dawn of a new day.