Community Contest Updates on Winners

This post is long overdue–eleven days overdue, to be exact. The Community Contests that were put on the new website right after our June 1st launch were test subjects. They were put there to test the functionality of the Start Your Own Contest component, which is, without question, the most significant improvement to the new Lenzr website. We are still testing this improvement and have not yet been able to present the optimal user experience.

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we’re working out the kinks.

The Most Glorious Colours

This was in effect the very first Community Contest ever created and executed on Lenzr.
A synopsis of the Glorious Colours photo contest read, “There is magic in every sunset, colour, mood, and cloud formation.”–this contest was looking for sunset submissions and the prize offered was a solar powered radio. The challenge was won by MrSlava with his Jamaican Red Stripe photo. The contest started on June 1 and ended on July 1st with 51 stunning photo entries.

A Line Has Been Drawn

The sun has produced energy for billions of years. Solar energy is free, and its supplies are unlimited. Every year, the Earth absorbs 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) of solar energy; it is time to harness it. SolarLine Power manufactures and assembles portable solar generators (PSGs) that are affordable, reliable, quiet, and deliver clean renewable power.

SolarLine Power makes Mobile Solar Work Units that can deliver remote power for industry, entertainment, disaster relief, and remote living scenarios.  If you’re currently using dirty, noisy, diesel generators for your remote power needs, or simply want to make your business greener, then you should consider a quiet, clean, environmentally friendly Solarline PSG. Portable solar power is here.

MrSlava with his Jamaican Red Stripe photo wins a portable solar powered radio.

The Eton Scorpion Wind Up / Solar Radio is a truly fantastic addition to any travelogue.  Mr Slava’s many friends will envy his new found ability to bring the music wherever he is, especially if the like the music he brings.

What’s In Your Garden Photo Contest

This photo contest asked for photographers to show the plumpest tomatoes, crispest lettuces, ravishing radishes, beta carotene rich carrots and anything and everything that’s growing in the garden. This contest was not looking for just a quick snap shot, it was looking for images with shapes such as, squares, circles, triangles, octagons and triangles that required the imagination. This contest only ran for a month, yet it attracted 51 photo submissions of profoundly beautiful works of art. Truly amazing. The What’s In Your Garden photo contest was won by Bev Jay, who won the Ames Lawn Buddy. This prize may prove to be perfect for maintaining that vibrant garden.

What’s in Your Garden was sponsored by The Grass Cutters

They’re not just tree huggers… they love lawns, shrubs and gardens, too. The GrassCutters are the first clean-air lawn care service in Canada. Their goal is to provide a clean grass cutting experience, and they’re busy building the nation’s first and best sustainable lawn care service that’s powered by renewable energy. They intend to eliminate and/or reduce our dependence on fossil fuel esp as its used in two cycle engines, (like most gas powered lawnmowers). They use quieter more efficient electric equipment, provide organic weed, fertilizer and pest control options and in some cases use a good old fashioned push mower. All this to protect future generations from the harmful effects of dirty gas mowers and unnatural lawn care practices.

Here is the winning picture, sunkissed, by user tluvr. The contest garnered 49 uploads which accrued 427 votes.

Living the Life Photo Contest

This contest was just for bragging rights – there was no prize involved. Lenzr members were asked to upload photos of moments of extreme relaxation–the perfect summertime contest and a laid-back introduction to Lenzr’s Community Contests.

This Community Contest was started by MuskokaGirl, a Lenzr member who runs her own successful Muskoka blog. The winner of the contest, as picked by MuskokaGirl (anyone from the Muskokas is an R&R connoisseur, right?) is Lenzr member Imoxide for this photo, called Living Free.

By the Light of the Moon Photo Contest

This contest page was home to some controversy when a new Lenzr member, omoxx1, blew the whistle on a couple of submissions that were using Photoshop and may (or may not have) pasted a moon image clip-art style into the photograph. For the record, here at Lenzr we see nothing wrong with using Photoshop on a submitted image; however, cut-and-pasting is just not cool for two reasons: 1) it’s not a photograph anymore, it’s a collage, and 2) clipping all or part of an image from an unidentified source is a violation of copyright laws and plain old plagiarism, the sworn enemy of artistic expression. This contest was offering a big prize, and when there’s a big prize on the line the likelihood of cheating or sabotage is higher–not just in a Lenzr photo contest but in any field of competition!

While we appreciate omoxx1′s passionate cry for fair play, we wonder how it could have been more inquisitive rather than accusatory–we like to give our members the benefit of the doubt. The photographs that were called out did NOT win the contest, and potentially, that may be due to the whistle-blowing. Lenzr doesn’t want to see this happen again so over the next few days we’ll be devising a plan on how we can better inquire into photographs that may look suspicious. Please bear with us as the site has only recently launched–we are working to have the Lenzr Forum reinstated as soon as possible, and think a suspicious picture inquiry section on the Forum would be more appropriate than commenting on the photograph itself. We also wanted to thank Lenzr member Martin Savaria, who for months has been submitting beautiful work to the Lenzr contests but also wrote in to administration to voice a number of kinks he’s noticed in the site. Suggestions from Lenzr members are highly valued and appreciated, especially at this early stage in what will hopefully be a very long lifeline for Lenzr.

By the Light of the Moon was Sponsored by It’s My Potty

It’s My Potty is a forward-thinking portable restroom company committed to improving the portable washroom experience. This company believes “using a portable restroom should be a normal, everyday, clean, comfortable experience; not a mind numbing, nose altering embarrassment,” and their products as well as unmatched customer service are testament to that. They’re green-friendly too–a pioneer in its field, It’s My Potty introduced solar panels in their units long before the green renaissance. Their portable restroom solutions have received compliments from the attendees of many formal, upscale events–now that’s clean!

The winner of the By the Light of the Moon Contest and a 5-day 4-night cruise was, this being a Community Contest, at the sole discretion of It’s My Potty (the Lenzr judges had nothing to do with it). So without further ado, congratulations to Dasha for her photo called Silver Night.

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!

The Prize Winner – She Even Snaps Dalton McGuinty and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Christie S.,  known as username movieminx, from East York, works in Technical Services at Mars here in Toronto. She’s just won a Fuji XXX, in the Lenzr “Best Cottage Moments” photo contest. It’s quickly apparent when talking to Christie about the camera that her passion lies in photography. Describing herself as an avid photographer or “occasional professional,” Christie loves shooting portraits, weddings and events whenever she gets a chance. She even has snaps of Dalton McGuinty and Arnold Schwarzenegger in her portfolio.

Shutterbug by Nature

Christie is admittedly quite the perfectionist when it comes to taking photos. “My husband patiently waits for me to line up shots on vacation, and I’ll keep trying until I get that perfect shot of an iguana. That’s the beauty of digital! I can take hundreds of pictures to get that one great shot.” It’s not surprising that Christie is such a discerning photographer seeing as she comes from a long line of photographers. Her family owned a 1hr Moto Photo before Walmart, Costco and the digital age took over. “I’m a shutterbug: always have and always will be. I used to use up a roll of film every weekend back when it was still called film.”

This Camera Prize Would have Been Perfect to Get Photos of the Sex in The City Stars

A self-proclaimed “contester,” Christie browses the web for prizes she really wants to win. Christie entered the Lenzr photo contest after seeing a link on Facebook. “I’d originally seen a dance themed contest first, and then bookmarked it, keeping my eye out for another prize.” She once also won a trip to New York to see the Sex and the City II premiere. “This prize would have been great to have back then,” she says, “since I had a much lower zoom and was seated too far away to get a good shot of Sarah Jessica and Kim Cattrall.”

New Kids on The Block Concert Dream

The camera she won came in handy for the New Kids On The Block concert she saw shortly afterward in Toronto. She was dying to see them back in 1991 when she lived out West in Edmonton, but at the time her mother wouldn’t allow her go. However, on Thursday, June 9^th her dream was lived out, and with her 10x optical zoom Fuji camera by her side.

The Prize Winning Photo For Best Cottage Moments

The prize winning shot that won Christie a new camera, courtesy of a muskoka cottage, was taken at her family cottage on Moira Lake, which her family has owned since 1973.  It was taken using a telephoto zoom on a Canon 30D, which she had gotten a week before going to the cottage and was super excited to use. The winning picture came from a series of images of her cousin about to bail while wake boarding, and shows him contorting in mid air, with the lake water sprayed out into tiny droplets around him.  “It’s definitely not a re-creatable photo! It was totally a one time shot,” says Christie.

Votes from as far as England and Florida

After she had uploaded the pic to the contest, she had Facebook messaged her cousin telling him he’ll soon be famous. Looks like she was right, as her picture had a winning number of votes. How did she promote the contest photo to get so many votes? She says she spread word about her photo using Facebook, Twitter, tons of emails, and a family support group who sent the word out to their friends and networks, with votes apparently coming in from as far as England and Florida.

New Contests and Easy Voting System

When asked whether she’ll be entering again, her response was, “Absolutely yes! The thing I liked best about this contest is that it didn’t appear fixed. It didn’t take too much effort from friends, since it didn’t ask for them to register or create a password. I’ve entered photo contests before which required emails in order to vote. No one wants junk mail, so that was appreciated, and it made it easier for my friends and family to vote for me. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for new contest subjects and prizes on Lenzr.”

Andrew Blyskosz is Lenzr member Silversurfer71

Andrew is the big prize winner from the April-May 2011 photo contest series – this photographer took away two Sony Cybershot cameras!

Turns out he’s a video editor at Chorus Entertainment here in Toronto. He’s a witty guy, and a remarkably cool dude for someone who spends his life locked away in a sound proof box listening to cartoon characters and puppets talk to each other. That would drive me crazy. But fact is that Andrew is a very creative and imaginative photographer with serious skills, and lots of high quality friend power. He drives a hot car too, or actually its a cool car cause it’s a convertible, and when I met him in downtown Toronto on Tuesday 7th June 2011 it was perfect ‘top down’ weather.

Andrew is a natural networker. He knew what I looked like from reading this blog, but I didn’t know what he looked like.  So he found me at the rendezvous point and approached me with a smile and open arms like we were old friends. Friend power is required to get your pictures into the Top Ten of just about every featured Lenzr Photo Contest. Some people don’t like that fact, but there it is.

When there’s only five days left in the cycle, the voting ends and the Lenzr Judges deliberate over the best pictures in the Top Ten. That’s when art and skill and form really matters – with the introduction of the Judges, the best photos in the Top Ten now win the prizes.  Andrew won two contests!

Andrew tells me that he plans to give the second camera to his niece. And now that I’ve published that fact, he really can’t change his mind. He wouldn’t. He’s encouraging her pursuit of the arts and hopes the camera will stimulate her creativity.

The Shiny Metal Surfaces photo contest amassed 70 photos and 1323 votes

Silversurfer71′s picture  Cloud Gate – Millennium Park was a crowd favourite which proved most popular with the Judges too.

The Weather The Storm photo contest accrued 64 photos which attracted 1596 votes. It gave Lenzr contest marketers a perfect opportunity to talk about inclement weather and the safety and security of having a TOUGHROOF, which is the finest quality, most durable, and most cost effective commercial flat roof system here in Ontario, and all across Canada, at this time.

The winner was Rise of the Thunderhead by Silversurfer71

Above on the right is an image of a white flat roof here in Toronto after the storm. The white rubber asphalt surface is guaranteed for the life of the building.

On Stage At Home Contest Winner !!

On Stage At Home was a perfect photo opportunity for Sweater Eyes to enter her “Kit Girl” photo. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that she actually won the prize. The competition was set high with a large amount of photo submissions. She originally had her photo posted on a photography project blog:
http://sweatereyes.wordpress.com.   She made a typo and her photograph was named “Kit Girl” when submitted to Lenzr but it was actually intended to be named “Hit Girl”.  She gives photo credit for this image to her partner, Korpolfr.  She was kind enough to send Lenzr a kind of silly, promotional shot of the prize winner Sweater Eyes with her catopus creations that she mentions later.  They are not the technical zebra print rug that was the original prize offered, but she was thrilled with the prize alternative non the less.  The prize money allowed her to create her own whimsical creations for her budding new innovative business.

Here is what Sweater Eyes had to say when we asked for verification that she received her contest prize and how she felt about being a Lenzr contest winner:

“I heard about Lenzr and the contest on a photography network site, someone posted in the forums, a website that had photography contests that were only open to Canadians. I was pretty excited, but really skeptical… there had to be a catch, or an entry fee.. something… but there wasn’t. I think I actually entered 3 or 4 contests on Lenzr during that time period. When my picture was in the final top 10 in the At Stage At Home contest, I didn’t really expect to win. I thought that my photograph “Hit Girl” (oh by the way, I realize I made a typo way back when and said “Kit Girl” instead.. but it is “Hit Girl”) was too abstract from the theme, and then there was the fact that people were confusing my photograph with being an actual movie screen shot. I almost didn’t even get the first e-mail from you asking if the photograph was an original, as it was sent my junk mail. I’m definitely happy that I noticed it, and that I replied right away (hence the messy spelling). But I was really excited when I found out that I won, although I must admit that I felt really awkward too.. I wasn’t sure the proper way to react, and I’m actually a really shy person. I was also really nervous that people would be angry, thinking that I didn’t deserve to win. When the “critiques” were posted on the Lenzr blog, it made me feel better because I knew that my photograph won because of various reasons, and no one seemed angry (I’m probably just paranoid).”

Prize Making Catopus

Sweater Eyes had more to say about her prize.  “When you asked if it was okay to send me money instead of a rug, to be honest I was a little relieved. I made good use of my prize, and it could not have come at a better time. Since January I had been working like crazy to launch my personal business at the beginning of April, at a horror convention in London, Ontario. As a multi-media artist, I work primarily in photography and hand-sewn soft collectible sculptures. My favourite, and I suppose “trademark” (although it is not actually trademarked) items are a chimera creatures called a catopus (it is half cat and half octopus). This prize allowed me to properly launch my business: I have my own domain name for my official website, I ordered professional business cards, and I’m currently in the process of registering my business with the government of Canada. Those things would not have been possible this quickly if it had not been for Lenzr, so Thank You. This puts me more than half a year ahead of my original business plan and schedule. It has always been my dream to be able to have my own business, so that I can continue making art, and this entire experience has been such a great help.”

As the administrator of Canada’s busiest serial photo contest website, I meet a lot of innovative shutterbugs, art directors, designers, photo editors, and online magazine owners. When I come across people that I think are really interesting, I usually invite them to become Judges on Lenzr.  Do you know someone who should be a Judge? email Contact at Lenzr dot com
Here’s a complete List of the Lenzr Judges on board our panel ready to be the final arbiters in the four April / May 2011 challenges,

1.    Marc Gendron  of  In The Eye of The Lens
2.    Chris Kovacs  of  Adore Noir black and white online magazine
3.    Matt Zielinski -  of  Canadian Photographer online magazine and discussion forum.
4.    Jacques Surveyer – Canada Blog Friends profile, Pics of Canada

New Judges,

1.    Taku Kumabe aka Smaku, world class art director and recent Lenzr prize winner
2.    Bill Watson -  aka Ve3bnw, owner of a cool aerial photography business
3.    Debbie Watson – otherwise known as Mommakoala, veteran Lenzr participant
4.    Richard Carmichael of FRANK Ideas and Execution

Chris Kovacs, Adore Noir

Chris Kovacs is the west coast photographer behind Dark Shutter who recently started his own mass media project, Adore Noir black & white photography magazine to celebrate new and outstanding b&w photography. The journal is a high-quality online publication of fine art photography, and a source of inspiration to photographers and other individuals interested in the niche.

Marc Gendron runs In The Eye of The Lens

In the eye of the lens is start-up discussion forum about photography made by friends for friends. Its brand new and just finding its feet and Lenzr hopes to foster growth. We know what’s its like to start out with a new idea and nothing else… starting a web property is like settling new land and planting new crops, but instead of axes and shovels we’re using keyboards and command code.

Matt Zielinski runs Canadian Photographer

Matt Zielinski  runs Canadian Photographer magazine and discussion forum.

Taku Kumabe is an art director

Taku Kumabe recently won the Making Green Power photo contest on Lenzr and received a portable solar generator as reward. He’s very happy with this prize because it nicely compliments his double life as outdoor adventurer and road warrior.

Taku is a traveler and respected art director for a trade magazine. He is very good at his job, but loves to get away and unplug…  Of course now he’ll be plugging into his new Escape 150 Solar Power Generator to charge his many devices. The device supplies power via USB, 12V and AC outputs.

Bill Watson, aerial photography

Bill has enjoyed photography for over 40 years. His multiple interests in the art form led him to become a very versatile photographer that’s good at getting effects and really good at moving the camera… Currently, Bill likes to shoot landscapes, and wildlife he finds therein. He likes candid shots, but executes portraits and commercial product photos too.  Bill has every reason to be confident and even proud of his abilities – he’s combined his two passions; 1) his love of aviation (he’s a licensed amateur pilot) and 2) photography have merged into a new artform, Remote Control Helicopter Aeriel Photography.

Bill and his wife Debbie (Mommakoala) both view photography as the ability to capture fleeting moments of life that can be enjoyed and treasured for decades to come.  Bill Watson is the owner of very cool aerial photography business.  This mad scientist’s high angle pictures have been featured in the Hamilton Spectator, Toronto Sun, Fallsview Hotel Niagara Falls, Snap Hamilton, and Daily Planet (… hey, isn’t that where Clark Kent works?).

Bill Watson  is the prolific Lenzr member Ve3bnw and with much applause here in the office, he’s been appointed as Judge in the upcoming session . Years ago he won a Blackberry Bold smart phone in the Crowded Places photo contest. I’ve been on Bill’s side ever since he tagged along with his wife Debbie on her Locaboire wine tour prize package; Bill took great shots of the wine ladies at the local Prince Edward Co wineries we visited that day.

Debbie Watson is Mommakoala

Mommakoala is a veteran contester and participant – she has a dedicated following and a good eye for pictures. She’s the judge that’s been promoted to Lenzr nobility ‘from the ranks’, if you will.

You might remember seeing Debbie on Lenzr last month in the Unlikely Marriage photo contest. I find this picture doubly ironic that Bill Watson her husband would submit it.  These two make quite a pair!

Debbie is a health care worker in Hamilton and multiple Lenzr contest winner. She’s won three contests.  Debbie won a Locaboire wine tour, 50 lbs of chocolate from Chocolicks, and $200 gift certificate from Kanetix. (She’s tied with Slimmswitch for being the winningest member) .

Debbie maintains the Canadian National Autism Foundation (CNAF) blog and that’s a good cause. She’s got a big heart.

 

Richard Carmichael of FRANK  Ideas and Execution

Richard is a creative guy with a business brain. He’s a web designer, team builder  and problem solver.

FRANK Ideas and Execution is a no-nonsense interactive marketing and social media strategy boutique.

Prior to establishing Frank, Richard spent ten years sharpening his teeth as Creative Director at Creative House in Toronto where he did some excellent work for an impressive assortment of top tiered companies like CIBC, Club Monaco, Edward Jones, McMillan Binch, Nelvana, Revlon, and YTV.

More recently, Richard has been spearheading Frank’s migration into the realm of Web 2.0, social networking, analytics (SEM) and the possibilities created by next generation social innovation technologies. His mission is to identify the opportunities inherent in everything he sees, bring progressive ideas, innovative technologies and talented people together to connect and engage, affect positive change and create a better, smarter and healthier world.

These are the Lenzr Judges, ready to do their jobs on May 25th when they have to pick the very best pictures from four different Top Ten groupings.

The results are in, the Feb / March winning photos have been decided!

The February March photo contest period set many records. There were over 300 pictures entered into nine competitions. These submission collected over 10,000 votes! Lenzr’s judges had their work cut out for them picking only one winner in all nine challenges, especially when so many beautiful entries were submitted for each challenge.

Announcing Lenzr’s Latest Winners!

Take a look at our winners as well as a bit of commentary from our six fantastic Lenzr Judges:  Jacques Surveyer, Chris Kovacs, Brian and Joan Stirling, Marc Gendron and Matt Zielinski.

1.  On Stage At Home

The On Stage at Home photo contest attracted 21 photo submissions which garnered 775 votes.

Winning photograph: ‘Super Hero’ by sweatereyes.

The Judges wrote,

-the photographer has demonstrated great timing with this action shot

-well exposed and well frozen in time, no motion blur
-nice use of colour and light—the photo is not backlit which you might expect in a photo with a window in the background.

This photo references a movie called Kickass.

Following up on some concerns, we contacted sweatereyes and asked if the picture was indeed her own picture? a self portrait? how did she manage that? and this is what she wrote in her email reply,

Yes, that picture is an original.  The entire costume is hand-made by me (with the exclusion of the wig), and is based off of the character Kit Girl from Kickass.  The window is in my living room, and it is overlooking Dundas Street in London, Ontario.  This particular street is known for crime (drug deals, assault.. you name it), making it a suitable place for a super hero to keep watch.  The sign that is slightly visible in the photo (the pink and purple) is a lingerie store, and is what I am lucky enough to see out of every window in my apartment.  That is also me in the photograph, which resulted in a lot of me running back and forth.

Congratulations, sweatereyes, you’ve won a fabulous animal print rug courtesy of Stirling Home Studio, a veteran home stager in the competitive downtown Toronto condominium market.

2. Beautiful Factories

The Beautiful Factories photo contest is the successor to last session’s Broken Factories challenge, and the submitted pictures as numerous and equally beautiful.  This contest was successful in terms of overall participation with 33 images in contention and 1885 total votes.

Winning Photograph: ‘Five Roses’ by sarahgo

The Judges wrote,

-great exposure in tough lighting conditions
-simple and straightforward, but could be cropped
-good use of long exposure to bring out colour.

As the administrator, I must tell you all here that this photo was flagged by several members as being fraudulent. They believed the picture belonged to someone else who has the same Five Roses flour mill pic in his Flickr photostream and indeed his gallery shows several pics of the mill from a few different angles.  So we contacted the member, first name Sarah, and asked her to prove that this was indeed her image. She replied in great length and took the time to point out the differences in the pictures including exposure and star filters on lights – and oddly there were less lights on the building below the bridge in the other guy’s photo? Could they have changed the building in the time period between the shots? Weird.

Congratulations, sarahgo, you’ve won an Apple iPad!

3. Best Patio in Canada

The Best Patio in Canada photo contest on Lenzr accrued 26 photos and 776 votes.

Winning Photograph: ‘Distillery’ by Vagabondage_Press

Lenzr is located in the historic Distillery District and we know how many people wander around the property taking pictures. This place must be among the most heavily photographed areas of Toronto. Personally I find this photo is oddly depressing.  The boarded up bldgs in the background and empty streets are ‘sad’ to me. It looks like the kind of picture you’d see on an album cover of a county and western singer.

The Judges wrote,

-much character is illustrated in this photograph
-great capture of grittiness and durability

This contest was sponsored by Velago Patio Furniture here in Toronto and they’re standing by, ready to ship out a bistro table and two resin wicker chairs to the winner.  Like the furniture in this photo, these ‘durable’ pieces of outdoor furniture are made especially for Canadians. The material is designed to withstand the heat of our summers and the cold winters, ice snow and rain. The Velago Patio Furniture blog is interactive and informative homemade media art.  Go there and connect with Urs – he’s great fun. We show our other blog friends his portal because it’s so well constructed. His blog is a true labour of love from a skilled social media master at this patio furniture company.

Congratulations, Vagabondage_Press, you’ve won a patio furniture set! You and Urs will meet perhaps and I hope he writes a blog post about you and your fantastic, if slightly depressing image.

4. Making Green Power

The Making Green Power photo contest collected 19 photos and 443 votes. We expected more participation here but ended up with a nice healthy match. And it wasn’t all solar panes and windmills either, while they did make up the majoriy of the snaps, there was also an ethanol plant, some vegetable power a female mannequin wearing a dress made entirely of empty shotgun shells.

Winning Photograph: ‘Midnight Wind’ by smaku

The Judges wrote,
- great black and white photo with nifty smear of windmill vanes
- could be cropped
- a very creative entry for this contest
- well composed and captured

Congratulations, smaku, you’ve won an Escape 150 portable solar kit! This is an ultra portable, dependable and completely modular alternative energy system. This kit courtesy of Solarline Power: Ontario Microfit program. The Escape 150 is a small renewable energy device designed to provide electric power for the adventurer that travels light. The sophisticated unit will handily power all devices you bring along on your next camping trip, minor outdoor construction project, or mineral prospecting expedition. The system provides the traveler with 150 watt-hours of rechargeable power and features an integrated 80-watt inverter that provides regulated safe power while protecting your connected devices from power surges. Now you can harness energy collected by the Boulder 15M Solar Panel or quickly power up from a regular outlet to be used whenever or wherever you need it.

5. Reflections in Pools

The Reflections in Pools photo contest was a huge success. There were 86 photos uploaded in this competition and the match collected 2068 votes. That was the most participation  in all of the nine different contests. This challenge clearly struck a chord with people. Obviously every enjoys a good reflection.

Winning Photograph: ‘Shimmering Reflections’ by tluvr

The Judges wrote,

-fine exposure
-great composition given challenging conditions

Congratulations, tluvr, you’ve won an Olympus Stylus TOUGH-8800 underwater camera!

6. Up Against The Wall

The Up Against the Wall photo contest was another wildly successful web attraction. The idea of celebrating images that are shallow- focused on the subject with little or no depth of field was sufficiently intriguing as  71 photos were submitted and 3111 votes were registered.

Winning Photograph: ‘The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem’ by nkuchmak

You can read all about Nick Kuchmak on his World on a Toilet blog site; he was kind enough to leave us the address in his profile. We wish more folks would do that btw. Anyway you can learn a lot about Nick Kuchmak on the About page on The World on a Toilet website. There’s even a picture of the photographer. The site chronicles the recent experience he had backpacking around the world with his girlfriend.

The Judges wrote,

-both the wall and the subject have an emotional impact; lots of character
-very nice composition for what looks like an unprepared shot

My own thoughts were that the man was holding a cellphone, but when I looked closer, I could see that he had no phone but yet still seems to have a connection, a means of communication, with the wall.

Congratulations, nkuchmak, you’ve won a Sony laptop! Also I should mention here that we have invited Nick Kuchmak to become a Lenzr Judge, in honour of his winning two separate photo contests in one session.  He is considering it.

7. Soap Foam and Bubbles

The Soapy Foam and Bubbles photo contest was perhaps the most interesting match in the last photo contest period. There were 36 photos uploaded into the challenge and these images accrued 1287 votes.

Winning Photograph: ‘Hung to Dry’ by Vinzr

The Judges remarked,

-love the creativity of this photographer
-well captured and composed
-nice composition, original concept and otherwise a great picture.

When I followed up with Vinzr (we love  his name) to ask about a story behind the picture he explained,

Personally I think the picture is kinda ugly… sure it’s original yes, but not very pretty. I wouldn’t frame this shot, or hang this on the wall for example.  Although it doesn’t matter a lick I’ll tell you that my choice would have been Martin Savaria’s Bubble Bug that he only uploaded on the 23rd of March (and so it wasn’t even in the official Top Ten), but that shot is art.

However the majority of Judges picked ‘Hung to Dry’ so congratulations Vinzr, you’ve won a Sony laptop!

8.  People Dancing

In the competition called People Dancing, there were 13 photos submitted and 353 votes.

The Winning Photograph is called ‘Monk Dancing’ by nkuchmak

The Judges wrote,

-this shot captures the exuberance and physical exhilaration of dancing
-nice capture of the motion of the dancers and the concentration on their faces
-the shoes’ anachronism is amusing as well

Seattledredge’s picture of the couple dancing in the swimming pool was the runner – up.

Congratulations, nkuchmak, you’ve won two pairs professional dancing shoes! Because Nick is the photographer that recently backpacked all over the world with his girlfriend, now he can take her dancing in professional dancing shoes – unlike the sneakers seen on the dancers in the prize winning photo.

9. An Unlikely Marriage

The Unlikely Marriage photo contest was the most unusual of the session and required more than just good camera skills. This challenge attracted 49 submissions and 1783 votes. Each picture has some very obvious dichotomy.

Winning Photograph: ‘Barnyard Friends’ by paulinchains

The Judges wrote,

-impressive evening lighting, shows creativity
-well composed, nice camera angle

This contest was very popular, and there were incredible images, most notably an old tom cat eying a parrot,  a small Boston Terrier in love with a stuffed doll, and small boys and red cherries frozen in snow.

Congratulations, paulinchains, you’ve won an iPad! This barnyard love affair is intriguing and very well photographed.

Lenzr Celebrates Skill By Creating Tricky Themes and Difficult Challenges

We must repeat, the majority of the pictures uploaded in all nine contests were fantastic, and the Top Ten groupings have never looked better.

We should mention however that one of our judges, Jacques Surveyor noted  that he would have liked to have seen better cropping in many of the photos.  Most cameras today have zoom lenses and plenty of pixels, so he suggests zooming in closer to the point of interest or cropping the picture using photo editing software. Jacques plans to run a cropping tutorial on his Photo Finishes blog (just a tip for our next contest period). Finally, before we announce the winners, we’d like to thank everyone who participated in the contests this session. The sponsors are thrilled. Your input and creativity are greatly appreciated.

JUDGES: Thank so much to our fantastic panel of Judges for performing such a difficult task. And thanks again to you, Lenzr members who continue to surprise and delight us with your style and creativity. Stay tuned for next month’s contest for new challenges, great prizes and superb Canadian photography!

New Lenzr Judge and his Photographic Journey

Chris Kovacs is the winner of Broken Factories photo contest on Lenzr that ended January 1st 2011.  His beautiful black and white photograph called No Trespassing garnered hundreds of votes from an adoring public. Now he’s moving on to be one of new panel of Lenzr Judges. Looking into his past, it’s easy to see where he found his passion and skills for photography. He has quite the background, and future, with photos.
Chris was born into a photo friendly family in Edmonton in 1976. His grandfather was a photographer and he was fortunate enough to receive his first camera at age eight. But back then photography wasn’t his only tool for self expression; he also played drums.
In 1999 Chris experienced a real transformational period in his life, and he says he “moved to Vancouver to escape an ex girlfriend.” His flight for sanity took him to Vancouver Community College to study Civil and Structural Drafting. The Broken Factories photo contest with Lenzr was perhaps an excellent combination of interest in old decayed structural steel buildings and the photography.

In 2004 Chris married a lovely local girl who shortly thereafter gave birth to their two photogenic sons. These beautiful creations were meant to be photographed by Chris and he honed his skills at portraiture by capturing their early years with a cheap point and shoot camera. His family was a huge source of inspiration for his photography practice, and he bought a Sony SLR in 2006 to take better quality photos. He then moved on to a much better NIKON D80 in 2007 along with a 70-200mm VR. He followed the demand and began selling professional ‘head shots’ for models and actors, and of course lots of family portraits.

Chris evolved further and began exploring daytime long exposure photography. He soon developed a liking for fine art landscape photography. He was influenced by David Burdeny, Michael Kenna and Josef Hoflehner.

In mid 2007 had special neutral density filters constructed by a German company and this fortunately allowed for extremely long exposures in broad daylight.  Chris began assembling a portfolio of long exposure seascapes and landscapes, and that garnered quite a bit of media attention.

In late 2007, Chris Kovacs made his debut in the limelight with a flattering two page article about his work and long exposure photography printed in the Burnaby Newspaper. It didn’t stop there. In early 2008, he was also published in another two page piece in an international photography magazine called Practical Photography. In the summer of 2008, he began his portfolio of travel pictures and landscapes shooting pics in Eastern Europe, specifically Croatia, Germany, Austria. The following year he became interested in wedding photography and he upgraded to a Nikon D90 to give it a try. However in 2009 he decided wedding photography was not his thing and shot his first and last wedding. “What was I thinking?” is what comes to mind when Chris reflects back on his photographic journey. During this time he also dabbled in photographing in fog.  Perhaps he was not thinking clearly at the time.

The following year in 2010 Chris focused on producing ultra wide angle photography. He made another photography investment with a purchase of a Sigma 10-20mm lens. This inspired the beginning of a wide angle street photography portfolio – the project is the perfect opportunity for the young photographer to experiment with multiple layers and exposures to create a single image.

New Photography Ventures for Chris

Chris’s passion for photography keeps expanding. He launched his own e-venture website Dark Shutter Photography. He continues to look for new photography challenges and opportunities. In November 2010 he stumbled across Lenzr and entered the Broken Factories photo contest and won. Last week his prize arrived – he received a Toshiba Netbook for his trouble. He has since been invited, and has accepted, a role as one of six new Lenzr Judges. His reputation for award winning black and white photography continues to expand; he was just recently was interviewed in B&W magazine.

Chris Kovacs has become a catalyst for the collection of knowledge with the launch his own black and white fine art photography magazine. Adore Noir Black & White Photography Magazine is a high-quality online publication of fine art photography, and a source of inspiration to photographers and other individuals interested in this fascinating fine art. Be sure and check out the Adore Noir Facebook Page; please support our Lenzr Judge with his creative passion so we can all benefit from his experience.

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.

Three photo contests ended on Jan 1st 2011. Sand Dollars seen above, won the designer swimwear prize in the Canadian Beaches photo contest.

Canadian Beaches collected 73 photos from Lenzr members. This body of work was voted on 1084 times by members and their friends. The marvelous image by Cltikal, entitled Sand Dollars, was shot on the beach at Tofino British Columbia, and had the highest score of 154.7 points out of 402 total views.

A sand dollar is a marine animal that resembles a large coin. Sand dollars belong to a class of animals known as Echinoids and are close relatives of the sea urchin and starfish. Many people are familiar with sand dollars that have washed up on the beach, becoming bleached by the sun to a light sandy color. The ones above are probably still alive, and their presence nicely illustrates the flat sandy expanse of that coastline in Tofino, British Columbia, Canada. Well done Cltikal.

From what could have been the same roll of film, Cltikal also won the Making It Beautiful photo contest for the image of a man drawing a heart in the sand of the beach. Same beach? probably.

The Making It Beautiful contest had some incredible images uploaded to the index, which numbered 41 photos in total. The collection was voted upon 1107x and Cltikal’s winning photo, Writing in Sand finished with a score of 142.7 out of 555 total views. The caption reads, The beach is already a beautiful place but why not make your own mark on it with a gesture of love!

Congratulations again Cltikal, you will be mailed a gift pack containing approx $500 worth of Aveda beauty products. Stay tuned for that exciting blog entry in the near future.

Other noteworthy images that must be mentioned would include Doing what you love by pamela-mark, and there is something perfectly wonderful about the green colours and childlike simplicity of MrBishop‘s See Turtle. My personal favourite from the entire contest was Martin Savaria‘s Good dogs, which features a man sculpting two massive pack animals out of snow.

Broken Factories photo contest collected 33 pictures which then earned 1193 votes by members and visitors to the website. The winner was No Trespassing, a black and white ghostlike image from a Vancouver shooter named Chris Kovacs.  The picture has the description, “The remains of an insane asylum from the late 1800′s which later became a storage facility.” Its all rather haunting.

NOTE ABOUT FUTURE JUDGING

This is the last time that Lenzr photo contests will be conducted without ‘judging’ by sponsor and admin. Starting Feb 1st, at least one judge but preferably a body of judges will select the winning photo from the Top Ten, which are decided by voting on site.