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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s time to say goodbye to two of Lenzr’s valued judges and to welcome fresh eyes to the fold. Many thanks to Jacques Surveyor and ioi for their expertise in determining the winners of two seasons’ worth of Lenzr contests. You can read more about Jacques and Matt and their photographic pursuits on this original blog post introducing the Lenzr judges. We  are also excited to welcome back Lenzr judges Marc Gendron, Chris Kovacs, Taku Kamabe, Bill Watson, Debbie Watson and Richard Carmichael for another round of contesting; you can read about their artistic pursuits and expertise at the above link as well.

Let’s Welcome New Lenzr Judges Gregory White and Donna Dolphy

Gregory White of Gregory White Photography was born in South Africa and resides in Toronto today. He’s well-traveled, and gets around by airplane, bicycle, his vintage red Beamer and sailboat. Yes, Gregory’s a sailor, carpenter, vegetarian cook, cheese connoisseur and he’s even tried quilting.

He’s also a talented photographer, snapping weddings, portraits and one-of-a-kind promo shoots for businesses, such as this beautiful and mysterious shoot called Lost in the Woods he captured for furniture line Lost Nation. Lenzr is very pleased to add Gregory’s well-rounded expertise to our panel of judges.

Donna Dolphy is an award-winning hair stylist who has just opened her own salon, Donna Dolphy Hair, in Toronto’s glamorous Yorkville neighbourhood. Born in Jamaica, Donna has always had a heightened aesthetic sense which she discovered she could put to great practical use the first time she braided the synthetic hairs on the head of her doll. A stylist to the stars, Donna has worked with many celebrities in her work with different international fashion and hair design magazine, and she was named L’Oreal Hair Designer of the Year in 2009.

You may also recognize Donna’s name on Lenzr’s current Haircuts and Hairstyles photo contest, of which she is the sponsor. Lenzr is proud to include Donna’s discerning eye for beauty on our impressive panel of judges.

Let’s be clear, the contest is not about freeze frames or action shots, but rather the art and science of taking pictures of moving objects (or people, or pets or whatever) in such a way as to really illustrate that they are indeed moving. It can mean using in-camera effects, and yes, it can mean photo editing–or both.

Submit shots that showcase an object’s movement.

The Objects in Motion photo contest is a real challenge for amateurs and professional camera people. This is not something that people can easily make in photo shop, (they can, but it will look goofy). The task in essence is to capture both sharp elements and blurry wipes in the same frame. The photographer must make blurry and sharp composites to suggest something in motion… it’s tricky.

“Things in motion tend to remain in motion,” states Newton’s Law.

This contest wants to see examples of fast moving people, animals or objects. We want to get a sense of ongoing motion from looking at the photograph. Examples could be a twirling figure skater, a jet airplane taking off, even waves at the beach, or a black cat scurrying across a shady street.

Allegro Freight Services Forwards Anything – Anywhere – Anytime

The first use of air freight occurred in Nov 1910 when a big name department store owner shipped a bolt of silk by air from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio. Reported in the local Columbus newspaper, the story noted that the shipment had beaten the railroad express between the two cities. This was a relatively short flight – but in 1910 airplanes weren’t much better than what Wilbur and Orville Wright flew at Kitty Hawk December 17th 1903, and it was big newspaper story. Today it’s easy to move much heavier loads anywhere in the world.

Allegro (which musicians know means ‘quickly, lively’) specializes in full-service logistics. Given a choice between land, sea and sky, air freight is the quickest and most reliable transport mode. You buy time for emergency shipments, and create shorter lead-times in time-based and just-in-time systems. You reduce costs through reduced stock, tie up less capital, and achieve fast distribution.

Allegro Freight specializes in air freight. They provide customers with a global agency network to transport their cargo anywhere in the world. The Allegro team is ready to discuss any type of transportation requirement, and can move your loads across North America and overseas to Europe, Asia, Africa or Australasia.

The prize is a Sony Laptop, which is, metaphorically speaking, a freight service of its own. This laptop is great for writers or people on the go, and will store vast amounts of your own personal, innermost logistics.

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

A great photographer needs to be able to move in and out of their comfort zone with ease. A zoom lens will do the trick on occasion, but sometimes one must withstand disagreeable weather conditions, frightening situations or unfamiliar territories to get the perfect shot. Photographers should trust in their own experiences and personal subject matter, of course, but should always remain open to capturing striking images, even when they are uncomfortable or even just…out of season.

Play safe, it’s just a photo contest – nobody should get hurt!

Lenzr would never ask you to endanger yourself for a photograph, but we would ask you to think about fireplaces and furnaces in mid-summer, just as we asked you to show us the best patio in Canada several months ago when there was still snow on the ground. Yes, the latest Lenzr contest is called Fireplaces and Furnaces and looking for submissions illustrating the roaring glow of a fire–indoors!

It’s not easy to imagine lighting the fireplace in this heat, is it? It’s the perfect opportunity, however, for Lenzr members to create a scene, set the mood and get proactive as a photographer. Even on film, things aren’t always as they seem: Fast food photography is a lengthy process, and that beautiful shot of the bride throwing back her head in a laugh may have been coaxed out when the photographer admitted it wasn’t his first hurricane wedding.

So what if it’s summer? It can be winter…in your photograph.

Show us cozy! Pets curled up by the fireplace, curry cooking on the wood-burning stove, leftover embers in the morning after a warm and secure sleep. Tell us a story. Are those stockings? It must be Christmas Eve! Or are they wet socks? Did some family members get caught out in the rain? If your photograph begins to make you feel nostalgic for colder weather, you may have a winner.

Zonelife Designs Furnace Systems to Meet Heating and Budget Needs

Zonelife brings over 30 years’ experience to every installation. Experts in the heating industry, Zonelife specializes in high efficiency furnaces which can instantly save customers money as the costs of heating/cooling a home are often the bulk of the energy bill. Zonelife’s natural gas furnaces also produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than any other fossil fuel fired furnace and less carbon dioxide than electric heating.

Zonelife is dedicated to quality and so, in addition to their fine furnace materials, they go above and beyond in terms of customer service by designing a heat loss/heat gain formula to determine how much heat is necessary for each customer’s space. And, moving into the future, Zonelife is staying current by offering an option to their customers to set their new system to do the thinking for them, by calculating and maintaining the ideal air temperature.

The prize is a Sony Laptop; who couldn’t use one of those?

Contest begins July 1st 2011
Voting begins August 15th 2011
Voting ends August 25th 2011 Top Ten advance to Judges
Contest ends September 1st 2011 Winner announced on Lenzr blog.

This contest is open to all Canadians age 13 yrs or older, excluding Quebec.

From Sesame St. to Wall St., common counting exercises appear all around us. Have you ever woken up seconds before your alarm clock went off? Or guessed correctly the number of paces it takes you to get home from the bus stop? We are often unaware of how much tallying is actually going on inside our heads. Even people who claim disinterest in math may suffer from arithmomania (an offshoot of  OCD that creates in the sufferer an irrepressible need to count their actions or the objects in their surroundings). Do you ever count the number of tiles on the floor or ceiling? Cracks in the sidewalk? Cars in a traffic jam? Don’t worry, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going the way of Count von Count; what it does mean is you’re one step ahead of the competition in Lenzr’s latest contest: A Counting Exercise.

Count Von Count was constantly adding things up.

Counting things is a common behavioral theme, a sort of compulsion for someone with OCD. A compulsion is a behavior that is acted out in an attempt to quiet down the obessive thoughts. As such, it is typically an anxiety reducing behavior and that is why it is repeated so frequently. I’m not sure what obsession a counting compulsion might be compensating for ?  But the general pattern is that by acting out the behavior, people feel safer/better. So in this instance, Lenzr has therapeutic applications.

Archaeologists have calculated that humans have been counting things for over 50,000 years.

It is thought that the first method of counting was done with the fingers, then, in Stone Age cultures, tallies were used in trading goods and services. These days we count modern concepts like money, mileage and calories–though we retain some of our Stone Age roots when we look in the fridge and do a quick tally of its contents in order to determine what’s for dinner. Comedian Mitch Hedberg quipped, “I like rice. Rice is great when you’re hungry and want 2,000 of something.” Counting exercises are everywhere–there are literally countless possibilities for original submissions in this contest–and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Show us repeating patterns in a photo like people in crowds, riot police, lines on the highway, stars in the sky, reflections in a three-way mirror–the list, like numbers, is infinite. What could make this contest even more fun is if the photographer determines the numerical value of their shot and encourages Lenzr members to guess the total.

Cunningham LLP Chartered Accountants see Beyond Your Numbers

Cunningham LLP is a veteran team of Toronto accountants, a service orientated business with a personal touch. They are committed to working for the success of their mid-market entrepreneurial business clients in various lines of work. While their services cover a full range of  accounting, tax and business assurance and advisory services, they operate as more than just an accounting firm, taking responsibility for the future financial successes of their clients. Cunningham LLP is also the home of Mark Goodfield, The Blunt Bean Counter, the most interesting ‘accounting blog’ you’ll ever read.

Cunningham LLP was established in 1971 and each of their seven partners offers their own insights and expertise in realizing solutions for their clients–Cunningham works as a team, uncovering the possibilities and using the numbers to create a realistic vision for success. Their website is enriched by Cunningham-produced blogs and videos, further enhancing the element of personal touch these Toronto accountants provide for their clients.

The prize is a Sony laptop, a modern-day abacus.

Contest Schedule,

Contest begins   June 1st 2011
Voting begins    July 15th 2011
Voting ends        July 25th 2011          Top Ten advance to Judges
Contest ends      August 1st 2011        Winner announced on Lenzr blog.

This contest is open to all Canadians age 13 yrs or older, excluding Quebec.

This is the ghost photo contest. This lonely challenge has been haunting the Lenzr blog widget feeds for two months, but when you checked on the website, it didn’t appear in the line up.  It’s a mystery cruise, a whodunnit.  And now again it’s a ghost ship, set adrift in the night, a vessel without a sponsor to captain the storytelling. I remember how it all came about…

Lenzr is excited about summer in Canada. The clouds parted one day and it was warm outside. the Shafts of Sunlight photo contest triggers thoughts of summer fun exploring caves and crevices, old buildings and barns and dirty basement windows on really bright summer days. The inspiration for this contest came to us during a hard day at the office back in February. Let us paint you a picture of the gloomy start to that great ending day. It was raining and muggy outside. The offices of Lenzr are filled with beautifully detailed giant windows. We were all writing, clicking, and watching our computer screens. While our eyes were glued to our work, the rain stopped and rays of light creeped in through the windows to brighten the walls and hardwood floors . Rob was reminded of the beautiful Dutch paintings during the renaissance, and he will probably write about the Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio? Is that right? But now we’re walking around with smiles on our faces because of the hot sun beaming in and the weather is finally becoming enjoyable. So I suppose its a celebration of the summer season.

The challenge is making a shaft of sunlight look solid. You want to make it look like a tangible object that you can reach out and hold in your hand. A talented photographer understands the task requires atmosphere. It’s not easy to photograph sunlight. And this is not about recording a sunny day, but rather an exercise in making sunlight tangible, and the true focus of the image.

Complete Home Concepts is a building contractor that specializes in the design / build of custom sunrooms and patio enclosures to bring sunlight into your domicile. They are experts at creating both residential and commercial sunrooms.

The prize is a Sony DSCH70 Camera (color subject to change) courtesy of a clever company.

HOW LENZR WORKS: There is a ten day Voting Period that begins July 15th and ends July 25th. During that time, people will be prompted to rate the pictures. The Top Ten photos advance to Lenzr Judges on July 25th – The winner is selected based on their preferences , their comments are often published in the Lenzr blog. The winner is announced in the Lenzr Blog on or before August 1st 2011. Good Luck! Contest open to all Canadians excluding Quebec (wink) Canada only – must be 13 yrs or older

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.

Making it Beautiful is a very attractive new Lenzr photo contest. This challenge asks photographers to emphasize their definition of beauty, which is rather subjective, while using their photography skills. Its wide open.  Shutterbugs are asked to upload pictures of anybody improving anything – It could be a senior citizen polishing a vintage car or valuable antique garden tractor.  Or, an upload could feature friends painting a masterpiece, or chefs making a delicate centerpiece for a birthday banquet. Anything you consider beautiful will be welcome in this photo contest.

Aveda Institute Canada offers $500 in cosmetics and hair products as a reward to the most celebrated competitor.

The contest launched November 1st, voting begins December 20th. On January 1st, 2011 at 12:01 AM, (moments into the New Year), the person with the highest ranked photograph will win $500 worth of Aveda products.

Founded in 1978 by Horst Rechelbacher, Aveda Institute is more than just beauty, it’s a lifestyle.  People choose to live this way. The organization is an eco-friendly market leader that produces sophisticated beauty products that are natural and organic. The organization  offers many different types of training for all beauty professionals, and that includes education for hair stylists, spa advisers, hair salon owners and makeup artists.  At any Aveda hair school you can expect to find eager students that are well trained at the hands of highly experienced, and ‘sensual educators’ who impart truly tactile sensibilities to their students.
myLot User Profile

Without warning, Lenzr spawns three new interactive photo challenges which will overlap the five attractions that are currently running on this serial photo contest website. These exciting new competitions are also scheduled to last sixty days which means they’ll end Jan 1st, 2011, and so for three lucky Lenzr members it promises to be a very Happy New Year indeed.

More diverse prizes!

Upload photos now and you could win a Toshiba Netbook, or $500 worth of Aveda cosmetics or three designer bathing suits from Bathing Belle Swimwear. All of these new prizes and sponsors will be detailed here on this blog in the coming weeks

Voting begins November 20th in the five current challenges, which end December 1st.   And voting begins December 20th in the three new contests mentioned above, which end Jan 1st, 2011.

LjCdo rings in with a self portrait behind her iPad prize!

Anyone who frequents Lenzr in August 2010 will notice there are some new developments, in addition to four new photo contests.

The photography challenges end October 1st, 2010 and there’ll be a whole lot more good information about them on this blog in the immediate future. The changes to the voting protocols on the website are permanent.

The new Lenzr voting protocol promises to level the playing field and ramp up the excitement.  Now each photographer’s pictures will be on display only, until there are just ten days left in the contest. When the countdown ends, the time to vote begins! This upgrade should make each contest 2x more exciting, and 100% more fair.

In the past we’ve  had problems keeping the contests fair.  Lenzr is still evolving and we discovered over time that the contests were set up to favour early adopters. Users that were the first to upload pictures always had a much better chance of winning because of the volume of members and voting visitors that saw their pictures first and any vote no matter how small helps each photo.

This idea for a countdown mechanism came to  us from a member that emailed suggestions to help improve the overall Lenzr user experience.  Fortunately, when we hear a good idea we jump on it – six months later!  This update is long overdue but is expected to radically improve the overall fairness of the competition, and the overall user experience.

Lenzr hopes to create a photography competition that is fair and equal for everyone involved. There is no question that the best photo should win, but quality is subjective – what might be considered beautiful by some users may be hideously ugly and unprofessional to others. So its only when we can poll the masses and take the mean averages that admiration can be properly quantified to determine the preferences of the voting population.

INSIGHT – in the next upgrade there will be a coupon distribution mechanism added to incentivize Lenzr members to vote on images.