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.

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.