Last month’s Morning Sunshine photo contest on Lenzr drew close to 2,500 votes and was an exciting neck-and-neck race right into the final hours.

Of the 45 photos submitted, ljclo and EricC rose to the top of the group. But it was EricC’s photo “Morning Rays”, which showed sunshine being filtered through darkened trees on a country road, that clinched it.

EricC happily claimed his prize — an Apple iPad provided by a portable solar generators company — and said he plans to use his new gadget to develop and test apps with a friend. Seems like a good idea seeing as how Toronto is being dubbed the “new Silicon Valley” in the latest Toronto Life. The magazine said the city is a breeding ground for young techies who want to get into the world of app creation and make big bucks. Best of luck, EricC!

This is Eric C‘s prize winning photo Morning Rays
Contest: Morning Sunshine
Tags: rays, light, sun, sunrise, morning, trees
Current Score: 381.90
Total Views: 999
Uploaded on: 19 Sep 2010 @23:15

The August / September lenzr photo contest was indeed a strange session.

The new voting ritual certainly tested the vote fraud mechanisms and tested this Administrator’s own patience with humanity. But of course it was a blessing in disguise, and it taught us all a valuable lesson.  I’d like to report more, but this isn’t the place for that and the really juicy stuff will probably have to wait for the feature film about Lenzr.

Suffice to say that after the October / November photo contests have been announced there will be time to detail the new vote algorithm, and new vote fraud detection systems.  My apologies to anyone that’s disillusioned with the processes by which Lenzr collects votes – please keep an eye on this unique contest portal however, because  in the near future we’re introducing some really radical ideas including VIP voting with pin #s, and or a badge code honour system.

The Morning Sunshine photo contest was where most of the action occurred last month. There were 45 photos uploaded, and almost 2500 votes!  This challenge really captured the imagination of the membership and it was a hard fight between Morning Rays and Sunrise of my Heart.  We all thought for sure that ljclo was going to win, but then Eric C pulled ahead at the last moment.  It was an honest win that happened in the last six hours of the contest.  Indeeed Eric C won after he wrote the tender comment, “Thanks everyone for your votes and support. I was hoping to win the IPad to test and app for children with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome but it looks like I will have to get one another way. Thanks anyway guys!” This comment tugged at everyone’s heart strings, and most certainly affected other members and visitors, and in the end, that might have been what put him over the top! Congratulations Eric C !

The View From The Roof photo contest was the second most popular preoccupation of at least twenty different Lenzr members. The challenge enjoyed 34 image submissions and 1150 votes from members and visitors. It was a tough fight that was eventually won by ljclo

View From The Roof was sponsored by an industrial roofing company that’s owned by Dan Sheridan located in Toronto Ontario he services the GTA and most of southern Ontario. He was very impressed with the diversity, and the overall quality of all the imaginative submissions. The winner was… well it was unusual to say the least and roofing guys appreciate that particular view, even if it wasnt the most photographically breathtaking or beautiful vista.

A veteran Lenzr member and previous contest winner named Slimmswitch took first place in the People Building Things photo challenge. This contest enjoyed 22 photo submissions and over 700 votes. Whenever the contest asks for specific images like that, the numbers are always a little lower, and consequently the odds of winning are perhaps a little higher.

And finally its our great pleasure to announce that Slimmswitch is a multiple winner in this session! His photo Clubbing Conflict is the winner of the Conflict photo contest that was sponsored by Smojoe social media marketing in Toronto.  Congratulations Slimm, the prize is a Blackberry Bold 9700 smartphone which will no doubt only improve your already powerful social network.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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