What is the mysterious force behind a hit hairstyle? If you are privy to this secret knowledge, photograph your predictions in Lenzr’s latest photo contest, Hair Styling Trends For 2012.

2011 saw the return of some tried-and-true styles of the past as well as some bold new experiments with cut and colour. Heavy-hitter Jennifer Aniston (who made hair history in the nineties with ‘The Rachel’) was listed at #1 on Elle’s Best Hair of 2011 article for her update on the always-chic bob style. The divas of pop music like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj wore bright, multi-colored wigs with blunt bangs, and the pixie cut made a comeback on the likes of Harry Potter’s Emma Watson–one of the most-watched young women on the planet–as the movie franchise wrapped up this past summer.

What styles will 2012 give rise to? This is a year enshrouded by mystery–the ancient Mayans predicted a shift in consciousness this year while the philosopher Nostradamus predicted the end of the world–will these dramatic philosophies have an effect on the outward appearance of the public?

What do you think?

Is blonde always in style? Will perms experience a resurgence in popularity? How about men’s hairstyles, do you have a prophecy for those? Put your powers of perception and prediction into practice–photograph the newest hair trend and you could win a valuable prize.

The best stylists learn at Aveda Institute Winnipeg

This contest has been brought to you by Aveda Institute Canada’s Winnipeg hair school. A world-renowned company, Aveda is the best and most innovative in the industry.

An education in styling from the Aveda Institute is the first step to a profitable career as a stylist, and in honour of Canada’s new Aveda Institute in Winnipeg, Aveda is running a hair school scholarship video contest and awarding five talented contestants a full scholarship to one each of the following Canadian locations: Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg.

The prize for this Lenzr photo contest is $500 worth of Pure Plant and Flower Essence Lifestyle products from Aveda. For a complete list of included items please see this Lenzr blog post–it’s the same prize being given away in our Bad Weather Hair photo contest!

This contest started January 1, 2012. Voting starts February 15, 2012, after which the top ten user-ranked images advance to the Lenzr judges on February 25. The winning photograph will be announced March 1, 2012.

The radiant star of Lenzr’s Polarizing Sunlight photo contest is nearly 110 times the size of the planet we live on–so it makes sense that special equipment is needed to win this challenge. Since recorded history, the sun has been a source of wonder, legend and life itself, pondered and puzzled over throughout the ages by scientists and mystics alike. As the source of day and light, the morning sun is so dependable it can be taken for granted by those wishing to stay in bed for another few minutes of sleep…then again, most people’s hearts sink just a little with a setting sun. It’s not that night and moonlight are disagreeable, but they don’t have the warmth, purity and blinding light that the sun provides.

It’s when you’re a photographer that the sun’s intense rays become a problem–there’s a fine line between natural light and too much natural light. Polarization filters that you attach to the lens of your camera can reduce the glare of the sun on reflected surfaces like water or glass, or darken the sky in landscape portraiture.

This is the first time a Lenzr photo contest has required a polarizing filter for a contest; as well, this contest is restricting the use of photo editing software. In 2011 we saw breathtaking submissions entered consistently in Lenzr, contest after contest, and we’re upping the ante a little bit in 2012. Make use of a polarizing filter while capturing the sun’s light in a photograph and you could win a great prize!

Solarline Makes Clean, Quiet, Renewable and Portable Solar Power Possible

Solarline is the sponsor of this contest and the company is a powerful force in the Canadian solar solutions industry. Founded by Dan and David Shephard, two brothers from Toronto, Solarline’s mission is to establish a renewable energy business that truly cares about people and their needs second only to the needs of the environment. Solarline provides custom-designed portable solar generators, solar panels, rechargeable silicone batteries and much more.

The prize for this contest is truly cool: it’s a solar backpack courtesy of the forward-thinking folks at Solarline. Not only is this knapsack sleek and stylish, it’s a solar-powered charger for your electronics–and as portable as can be! This backpack is designed to charge cell phones, Global Positioning Systems, iPods, cameras and other small electronics.

This contest started January 1, 2012. Voting starts February 15, after which the top ten user-ranked images will advance to the Lenzr judges on February 25. The winning photograph will be announced March 1, 2012.

Message from Rob Campbell, the Executive Contest Producer
Occasionally the Lenzr admin writes dispatches to the membership outlining positive changes and technical evolutions to the Lenzr website. We are growing ever more popular, but slowly, and not so much through software innovation any more as by hosting imaginative contests that appeal to the masses. Each contest is like a stage play, or a project that we mount – and we never really know how successful the live event will be until it happens. Each contest is a story, as I have said before, and every picture is a sentence in the multimedia document, and together we wait to see who wins, and how the story ends.

Regarding the Website Crash(es)
Already House for Renovation and Electronic Engineering matches are breaking the bank and, as it turns out, breaking the website too. There was something restrictive in the database tables? Something fuzzy was happening there, and it was breaking every day as the website peaked in users and activity.

What to do? Pay smart people to fix it quick was the solution. And that’s what we’re doing/have done. It is still and will always be a work in progress, I’m sure.

Regarding the SPAM
I cannot tell you how stressful and embarrassing it is to operate a community software based website that doesn’t allow users to EDIT or DELETE the ubiquitous spam comments that accrue in such destinations all over the internet. Even the admin can’t moderate comments in our new website. And yet we (sometimes) pride ourselves on developing thoughtful and intuitive software solutions… our Achilles heel is that we have overlooked that critical component that every successful user generated content / interactive design MUST have. Now, today it’s a soleful task to receive and reply to countless emails asking for remedy. To everyone with SPAM on their profile pages I apologize and encourage you to Report Spam in the Discussion Forum here. It will all be mopped up and wiped away eventually.

Regarding the Toronto Christmas Market Photo Contest

Holy smokes the Toronto Christmas Market photo contest on Lenzr is an incredible success! There are now over 300 images in the gallery! That’s more than twice as many photos in this Community Contest module than in any featured contest Lenzr has ever run in its two and half years of operation, which is over sixty contests. There are twice as many votes as the highest ranked featured contests too. It shows the power of cross platform marketing and the value of developing the photo contest feeds for 3rd party client website hosts. This contest has become an incredible example of just what’s possible when you host a gallery of pictures on your website chronicling an event.

This photo, Christmas sunset by a new user named silverlink is one of my favourites.

If you have a photo in this match, please watch the next video we produce which will hopefully go live before January first, that will show the actual judges live voting and making their decisions on-camera right in front f your eyes! hopefully, if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed YOU could be a winner!

Here’s a snapshot of Lenzr’s traffic from Nov 22nd to today, Dec 22nd 2011

And that’s a great place to sign off saying ‘have a merry Christmas’ ; we all thank you for your participation and patience and your great photography – please  look forward to more great matches on Lenzr in 2012.

This photo contest is going to be a lot of fun, and should see some really interesting pictures uploaded into the index. In the last round of challenges there was an attraction built to celebrate ‘inventory management’, well Lenzr’s Bad Weather Hair photo contest is all about hairstyle management–or lack thereof. Its hard to have great hair in bad weather, but such coiffures can be really intriguing, and one will be award winning…  So in summary one could even say this match is a combination of two archived photo contests Haircuts and Hairstyles and Weather the Storm and that’s awesome.

As many women (and men) know, a great hairstyle takes time. It’s frustrating to finally perfect your  daily hairdo, grab your coat, and then hear a clap of thunder overhead. Rain wrecks hairstyles, snow smothers them and flattens them and excess humidity is sure to bring out the frizz. If your hair has just been set in curls and it’s a windy day, you can be sure your locks will look mangy, stringy and tangled by the time you arrive.

But looking good is a state of mind, and any man or woman who has the fortitude to throw fashion to the wind and let the elements do their thing, projects an air of confidence and swagger that their umbrella-wielding peers do not have. Think of Tim Robbins in the Shawshank Redemption after he breaks out of jail–yeah, it’s one of the most overplayed, hyper-sentimental scenes in movie history, but check out that Bad Weather Hair! If he’d brought an umbrella with him when he shimmied through those sewage pipes it would have totally ruined the moment.

People love and trust the Aveda Hair Institute in Vancouver

The sponsor of this contest transforms students into the  top professionals in the industry. The Aveda Vancouver hair school offers programs which can take less than a year to complete, and students graduate with credits from the fastest-growing worldwide salon networks in the industry. Aveda stylists have opportunities to connect to a global network, and are, on average, paid 3x as much as other hair stylists. Aveda also has the distinction of being the first beauty company running on 100% wind power.  Wedding Girl loves AVEDA – Read this terrific post about Mary Bratko writing about AVEDA contests on Ancestry Guru.

The prize is a basket of Aveda hair products worth $499 and including: Damage Remedy Restructuring Shampoo ($32), Damage Remedy Restructuring Conditioner ($32), Damage Remedy Daily Hair Repair ($29), Damage Remedy Restructuring Treatment ($35), Rosemary Mint Shampoo ($14),  Rosemary Mint Conditioner ($14), Shampure Shampoo 1 litre size ($42), Shampure Conditioner 1 litre size ($42), Control Force Firm Hairspray x2 ($68), Phomollient Styling Foam ($18), Confixor Liquid Gel ($25), Pure Abundance Hair Potion ($30), Brilliant Damage Control ($24), Control Paste Finishing Paste ($31), Brilliant Spray on Shine ($35) and a Wooden Paddle Brush ($28).   All of this is included in the prize pack!

This contest started December 1, 2011. Voting begins January 15, 2012, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges on January 25. The winning photograph will be announced on February 1, 2012.

In this day and age, things become ‘old’ a lot faster than they used to. Brand-new phones put their six-month-old competitors to shame and new fad diets surface–then disappear–with alarming regularity. We live in a culture obsessed with the latest news or innovation. Fashions come and go, but we shouldn’t forget that every new development, discovery or idea has its foundation in what has come before.

Lenzr’s Old Beside New photo contest is looking to see submissions juxtaposing the old world and the new. Just how much time has passed between the subjects in your photograph is, of course, your artistic prerogative. It could be generations; show us a grandparent holding an infant grandchild, or just a few months; compare this season’s hottest runway looks with last year’s. What new invention has caught your attention recently, causing you to marvel at the universe’s progress? Try to capture the deeper implications of old beside new. What is being gained? And what is being lost?

Remember to write a short but concise description of your photograph in 140 characters or less, explaining why you chose the subject you did.

Solarsoft promises the confidence of control.

The innovative minds at Solarsoft are committed to forging ahead in the software manufacturing industry and in creating programs that will enable manufacturers of any discipline to streamline their processes, with continuous improvement as the goal.

The winner of this contest will receive $250 plus a photo licensing agreement with the sponsor!

This contest starts December 1, 2011. Voting begins February 15, 2012, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges on February 25. The winning photograph will be announced March 1, 2012.

CONTEST DATE CHANGED AND WILL NOW RUN UNTIL MARCH 1ST, 2012.

The mouth is the gateway of good health and the state of our teeth is connected to our longevity. One of the most commonly reported recurring dreams is the nightmare of the teeth falling out. It’s a survival thing–the ability to chew your food is something that is taken for granted until circumstances (such as cavities or gingivitis–yuck, those words alone are so squirm-worthy!) take a turn for the worse.

But this challenge is not to capture doom and gloom shots of teeth rotting from overindulgence in cigarettes and coffee, or dentures…or hairy tongues. Instead, Lenzr’s Good Dental Habits photo contest is looking to see the diligent, responsible, proactive and protective measures you take to ensure that your chompers remain strong, white and… your own for as long as you live.

Good dental habits aren’t just about brushing and flossing twice a day, although these two practices do play an imperative role in dental health and images of said activities are welcomed in this contest. However, there are plenty of other practices that contribute to a healthy smile. Drinking milk is a good example and so is eating cheese if you’re drinking wine–teeth need calcium. Drinking green tea instead of coffee is better for your teeth, and having an apple in your bag to cleanse your mouth when you’re out of the house and can’t brush after eating is a great example of natural, proactive, oral care. Getting braces to correct an unbalanced bite is another idea. There are likely many good dental habits you’ve been employing that you don’t even know about yet; think about your daily dental habits and you’ll probably be surprised at how well you’re taking care of your teeth. Capture your best preventative dental self-care on camera and you could win a great prize!

Dr. Natalie Archer is a dentist in downtown Toronto

Pursuing excellence and trust in patient-centred dental care, Dr. Natalie Archer, a Toronto dentist located in the downtown area, is the sponsor of this contest. Dr. Archer believes in establishing an ongoing communication with her clients in order to come up with the best plan to achieve maximum oral health.  She is looking forward to seeing your images of personal dental care; as a dentist who places emphasis on patient wellness and, in particular, prevention, she knows better than most that good dental habits begin at home.

The prize for this contest is an Apple iPad 2.

This contest starts Dec. 1st, 2011. Voting begins Voting begins February 15th, 2012, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges on February 25th. The winning photograph will be announced March 1st, 2012.

Lenzr’s Toronto Christmas Market photo contest is our way of ringing in the holiday season. For those of you who didn’t already know, Lenzr’s headquarters are located in the Historic Distillery District in Toronto,  a charming and picturesque pedestrian village that features the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America. Luckily for us (and our insatiable need for beautiful imagery) Toronto’s annual Christmas Market takes place in our own neighbourhood from Dec. 2 – 18, so we won’t have to look very far for some holiday cheer. Apologies to Lenzr members who won’t be able to make it to Toronto for the festivities; we always try our best to create photo contests that Lenzr members from coast to coast can participate in, but Lenzr’ll be home for Christmas this year.

“Inspired by the Old World and influenced by the New, this free annual event captures all of the tradition, heritage and charm of a European Christmas Market, while showcasing hundreds of unique and local handcrafted products.” Capture the joy of the holiday season and the camaraderie of children and adults alike as they warm their bodies with cider or mulled wine, their hearts the magic of Santa Claus or the nostalgia of Christmas carols–on some of the coldest days of the year.

The winning photo will be used in the 2012 Toronto Christmas Market marketing campaign, and featured on the Toronto Christmas Market website, and will be published in Distilled Magazine with photo credits attributed. There are three prizes:
Winner will receive a $250.00 cash prize
2nd place will receive a $250.00 restaurant gift certificate
3rd place will receive a $100.00 restaurant gift certificate

This contest is sponsored by the Toronto Christmas Market and the Distillery District, and the sponsor is also the sole judge of the competition. Photos may be uploaded until December 25, 2011. Voting begins December 15 and closes at midnight on December 25. The winning photograph will be announced January 1, 2012.

Lenzr’s Electronic Engineering photo contest is looking for inside information–the electronic components of your favourite video gaming system, stereo, laptop or guitar. If you’ve never been the type to open up your handheld device and take it apart–then put it back together–perhaps you can get access to a studio control room.

It’s hard to imagine where we’d be without the tiny and intricate electronic components that make up so many of the instruments used in our daily lives. The way we share information would be completely different, as would be the way we’d write, play, perform or listen to music. Sometimes, to the majority of people who are not electrical engineers, the achievements of electronic engineering seem nothing short of magical. In this photo contest, try to dispel some of the myth–how do our mysterious technologies actually work? What little wires and circuits physically display the science behind our favourite devices?

Electronic components can be an interesting–complicating yet beautiful–addition to artwork, as seen here in the work of Toronto artist TorontoArtsGirl Ruth Wilgress. If you look closer at this piece entitled So Close Yet So Far you’ll see the tiny electronic components that make up the skyscrapers of Toronto’s skyline, a neat metaphor for ‘inner workings’.

Standex Electronics is a leading manufacturer of custom electronic components

For over 40 years, Standex Electronics has been a leading manufacturer of  reed switches and reed relays, transformers and inductors, proximity sensors and fluid-level sensors, antennas and coils, connectors, lighting products, as well as current sense and planar transformers.

The prize for this contest is, fittingly, an Apple iPad, courtesy of Standex Electronics. This contest started on November 1, 2001. Voting starts December 15, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges. The winning photograph will be announced January 1, 2012.

Lunchables aren’t going to win this contest. Those shrink wrapped plastic coated instant meals made of processed bread, soda biscuits, preserved meats and cheeses are hardly the proper sustenance for growing children.

Most ready-made lunches claim good nutrition, but carefully scrutiny often reveals penny pinching practices that reduce antioxidant or overall health impact.  Cranberry cocktail is mostly red apple juice for example.  In the U.S., the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign (a movement to combat child obesity at a national level) has sparked controversy. Sarah Palin was quoted saying that Let’s Move is “…the government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician’s wife priorities. Just leave us alone, get off our back and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.” She went on to say “[W]hat she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat.”

Lenzr’s Lunch for Kids photo contest is looking for submissions depicting wholesome and well-rounded lunches suitable for growing minds and bodies. Never mind politics–what kind of lunch do you think is healthy enough to nourish children, while at the same time being enjoyable enough for them to eat? What lunchtime traditions are included? Is there a favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunchbox? Does Mom or Dad include an embarrassing (but secretly appreciated) note on a napkin with a line of ‘XOXOXO’s? Is there a lunchtime staple, like an apple?

Onyx makes non-plastic lunch containers

Located in Vancouver British Columbia, Onyx specializes in non-plastic food storage containers, including plenty of unique stainless steel kitchenware items, especially their ice cube trays and lunch containers. Their stainless steel catalogue is really quite impressive; if have a stainless steel kitchen then you’ve probably already been to their website.

The winner of this contest will receive $250 worth of stainless steel products from Onyx’s catalog –it’s your choice– with free shipping anywhere in Canada.

This is high-quality, long-lasting kitchenware that’s easier to clean, more hygienic, and won’t leak pollutants into your food – also this stuff holds its value while almost all other kitchenware loses value over time. Onyx even has stainless steel popsicle makers; they are a Canadian company who were inspired through their own children to create food and drink containers that were safe, resilient and healthy.

This contest began November 1, 2011. Voting starts December 15, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to judging on December 25. The winning photograph will be announced January 1, 2012.  Contest valid in both the United States and Canada.

Another well-timed challenge, Lenzr’s new House for Renovation photo contest is looking for submissions of worn out homes. With Halloween swiftly approaching, run-down manors are in great demand for hay ride and haunted house season–so seek out the shrieking shacks in your neighbourhoods and you could win a pad of your own, an iPad, that is. Show us broken windows, sagging eaves troughs, sliding shingles and peeling paint, caved in porches, outdated siding, and awnings held in place by lopsided supports. The house you photograph doesn’t necessarily need to be an abandoned home, but your photograph should definitely illustrate a need for fix-ups or improvements, if not a bulldozer.

This is a fun contest with a lot of great imagery potential. In Frank Capra’s classic 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life, romantic leads George and Mary fall in love outside an old abandoned home where George talks about lassoing the moon for Mary, then throws a rock through the old house, making a wish as he does. Mary protests at first, saying “Don’t, I love that old house,” before throwing her rock and making a silent wish.  And, although George responds with “I wouldn’t live in it as a ghost,” that’s precisely what happens; on their wedding night Mary reveals that “This is what I wished for,” as rain pours through the roof into their new living room. Old houses often have a romantic, or creepy or just plain fascinating appeal to them. Try to capture the energy of the house in your photograph–what do you know about the house? Who used to live there? What do you imagine went on inside?

The Calum Ross Team Takes Your Financial Goals Seriously

The Calum Ross Team is a Toronto mortgage broker with a simple but powerful goal: to be the best in the business. They cover the market so customers don’t have to, providing immediate access to over 30 lenders including Scotia Bank, Bank of Montreal and President’s Choice Financial. The Calum Ross team works their hardest to accommodate the desires and needs of their clients; this, combined with expert knowledge of the Canadian financial markets, results in superior education (Calum Ross puts extra emphasis on explaining to clients all their different financial options) and of course, advice.

The prize is an Apple iPad 2, courtesy of our generous sponsor. This contest started October 1, 2011. Voting begins on November 15, after which the top ten user-ranked photos advance to the Lenzr judges. The winning photograph will be announced on December 1, 2011.