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.

Saturday Feb 27th 2010 in The Better Living Center at Exhibition Place in Toronto, on day seven of the National Home Show, Lenzr met Steve Hamoen.

Steve is a geothermal guru.

The word geothermal comes from the Greek language – the root ‘geo’ means earth, and ‘thermos’ means heat.  In modern times the word has come to mean ‘power extracted from heat stored in the earth’ and Steve’s company uses that power to heat houses.

Geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet, from radioactive decay of minerals, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. It has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but is now better known for generating electricit. In large scale power plants this is done by simply boiling water to make steam to propel turbines.

But Geothermal energy is not exactly free power…

A common misconception about geothermal energy is that it just comes up out of the ground in easy to use levels. Sadly, once again nothing in life is free, not even the Earth’s heat.  In this case the heat units that come from the ground are referred to as low grade energy, and they need to ramped up into more viable residential or industrial heating (or cooling) strengths. This usable heat also needs to be distributed to from the source to the areas that require heat and all of that sort of thing requires electricity. But overall the system is part of a bigger, better planet saving solution.

Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to only a very few areas of the globe, like Iceland. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, and in particular floor heating.

The Fire and Ice photo contest on Lenzr is sure to melt minds and set hearts ablaze on the homepage. The contest is probably the most technically challenging request this session, and it will almost certainly ‘go viral’ as friends tempt each other to submit their best fire photography. Already there are some terrific pictures in the index, and you can be certain, more arctic infernos are coming. Contest ends May 1st 2010

The Prize is GeoAir PCO air purifier

GeoSmart’s GeoAir PCO (PhotoCatalytic Oxidation) is perhaps one of the most advanced air purifier technologies available today. Unlike existing air cleaning systems that rely solely on ultraviolet light, the PCO integrates a titanium dioxide semiconductor to leverage photocatalytic oxidation allowing it to vaporize indoor air pollutants, including those that cause odors, and break them down into non-toxic products like C02 and H20. Bacteria, viruses, mold spores and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are destroyed when they come into contact with the system’s 187 square-inch Ti02 grid. The system is cost-effective, maintenance-free and provides maximum energy efficiency with negligible resistance to airflow.

The perception of indoor air quality (IAQ) is based on the interaction of a complex set of variables including chemical, biological, physical and psychosocial factors.1 Concern about indoor air quality has been driven mainly by health problems believed to be attributed to exposure to gaseous, particulate and microbial contaminant.