On Weds, 20th October 2010, Rob Campbell of Lenzr met Slimmswitch (Helder H) and his wife CheeslyC at Balzacs, outside the art gallery /coffee shop in the historic Distillery District complex at 55 Mill St Toronto.

On that happy occasion Rob presented Helder with two prizes donated by last month’s Lenzr contest sponsors, a Blackberry Bold 9700 and an Apple iPad courtesy of a Toronto area deck building company.

How does Slimmswitch win prizes in Lenzr photo contests?

After we handed Slimmswitch the goods,  we asked him about his ‘winning process’.  Much to our collective surprise, Helder told us exactly how he incentivizes friends to come to Lenzr and vote for his images.

Slimmswitch, like so many other Lenzr winners, harnesses a network of ready voters on Facebook, and on Twitter and he even takes the bold step of individually emailing his real friends and acquaintances to ask for their help and participation on his behalf.  And now, long after the contest has ended, he’s still paying them back. When they post pleas for help, he comments and clicks on their written pieces, he spends half an hour a night paying them back with ‘thumbs up’, comments and votes. Its a time commitment to his growing ‘friend network’. Amazing eh?

Helder holds the Lenzr prizes, a Blackberry Bold 9700 smart phone courtesy of Smojoe Social Media Marketing, and a brand new Apple iPad.

How Helder became Slimmswitch?

Years ago, when he first signed up for internet service over the telephone Helder was speaking to phone rep for AOL (America On Line) and he was asked to pick a user name. The handle had to be something other than his real name, and hard pressed Helder looked around his home office for inspiration and found it stamped on the SLIM SWITCH printer switch that channeled information to a series of interconnected printers.

As an AOL user, Helder built quit a reputation as Slimmswitch in online contest forums – this is where he built the network of friends and supporters that help him today.

This is Helder’s third and fourth prize on Lenzr

Helder has won two prizes on Lenzr before.  Most recently, some readers might  remember that Slimmswitch won the rechargeable battery powered Nueton CE6 lawnmower in the How Green are You? photo contest.  And of course Lenzr members might also remember that these winning pictures really aren’t anything special. And we mean that in the kindest possible way.  But its true, even the most eccentric judges would probably not have selected Helder’s photo(s) as winners  – yet he won.  He won on Oct 1st 2010 because today the appraisal system on Lenzr is a purely numeric accounting program; the greatest number and quality of votes always wins the prize(s).  Sure its easy to game, but only by doing what the sponsors want most; by collecting friends and sending referrals to vote on their images, the individuals promoting their pictures are encouraging participation on Lenzr as a whole.

Now is that fair? Not entirely. Where is the photography art appreciation in collecting friends?

Please be patient with Lenzr. Its growing and getting busier. Soon it’ll be as big as the ocean, and then it’ll be real hard for one contester to colour it purple.  Indeed there’s some mind blowing  stuff coming down the pipe.  We are designing an entirely new social interface that will distribute sponsors coupons while tracking and measuring each user’s honour.  No insight into release date yet … but there is a surprise coming for Nov 1st 2010.

On Lenzr, we like to show off the prize winning photographers that make the site such a special place.

Lenzr member ve3bnw a.k.a Bill Watson, the photographer that uploaded the highest rated image in Macro Photos of Life photo contest sponsored by mobile software developer Shrinkray, eager to visit Eastern Ontario and enjoy his VIP Locaboire wine and breweries tour.

Here is Isabelle Seguin, Lenzr member Seguini the photographer that uploaded the highest rated image in Medicinal Plants in Nature photo contest sponsored by Toronto, Muskoka natural medicine clinic moments after she received her prize in the mail, eight different Neal’s Yard Remedies.

The first contest period has ended now, September 1st 2009 and three winners have been declared. These members will soon be contacted by Lenzr admin re:  delivery of prizes, testimonials, and perhaps even candid self portraits. It was a very successful launch and there were so many photos uploaded to the index we wondered about adopting some kind of photo Inventory Software to keep track of all the submissions in all different categories, and indeed this might be something we consider licensing in the future. In the meantime,

Best Toronto Skyline had 46 photos submitted, including some amazing shots with lightning and ducks and vintage shots of the skyline that have all together gathered up over 2500 votes.

The first contest was sponsored by Lenzr.com and brought a lot of attention to the site. The prize is a Pentax Optio P90 digital camera.

The winner is DuCourt, who describes himself in the third person in his Lenzr.com profile, “Thomas is a long-standing freelance film technician in the Toronto film industry who is attempting to transition into an on-set photographer”. That could explain the wide aspect ratio here. There was certainly room for more details, objects and nouns contained in a Storage Ottawa solution, especially for the contest winners who become burdened with fame.

The photo entitled Looking back is a wonderful panorama shot of the city and bears the Caption ‘I took this photo looking back from one of my favorite Toronto hang-outs – THE DOCKS driving range down on Cherry St.’ This photo won the prize with 107 green thumbs up.

Summer in Toronto had people snapping and submitting shots of anything and everything outdoors in Toronto . The rules were fast and loose to encourage mass participation.  This was the most successful contest with 58 pictures uploaded and over 3700 votes.

This contest was sponsored by myCELLmyTERMS and offers as reward one smart phone.

The winner is Snickerzmom, whose bio reads,  ‘just me, a great BF and three cats’.  She wins the grand prize with a picture of a man (her father?) at the Blue Jays game.

Dad at the Game had 112 green thumbs up and the caption may have contributed to the success of this image. Caption “This is one of my favourite pictures of my Dad. For me, enjoying the game with my Dad is one of the best things about TO. It’s our time!”

Stay tuned for more details on Snickerzmom meeting representatives of myCELLmyTERMS to declare her choice and receive the grand prize.

Which phone will she choose?
Emergency in Toronto had 15 photos and gathered over 300 total votes.

The contest was sponsored by Bristall Morgan and offers an Esquire Verve 2020 luxury watch as reward.

The winner is mpirra.  This photographer’s bio reads, ‘I have been an amateur photographer for the past 30 years. Would like to go pro one day‘.

The winning photo,  entitled Firefighter saving lives carries the helpful Caption “Toronto Firefighter returning from a fire”.  This image won the contest with 55 green thumbs up.

Emergency in Toronto event was the most rigidly thematic of Lenzr contest cycle #1. The web challenge tasked users to upload images of Toronto’s frontline emergency respeonse workers in action and because of the stern criteria it received the fewest votes, but perhaps the most attention. Some of our favourite photos have been uploaded here