On September 28th 2009 at a Starbucks in Mississauga Steven Prentice the CEO of Bristall Morgan Inc met a Toronto photographer named Mario Pirraglia who was the winner of the Emergency in Toronto photo contest this summer.

Mario Pirraglia (mpirra on Lenzr) is a business executive in the natural gas vehicle industry who travels extensively for business. A passionate shutterbug his job gives him the opportunity to expand his travel photography portfolio.

Mario’s photo, Firefighter saving lives carried the caption, “Toronto Firefighter returning from a fire” and soon collected 55 green thumbs up to win the challenge on August 31st 2009.

When I asked Steven Prentice to describe the encounter and Mario (as well as obtain the photos seen here) he wrote this terrific account,

It was a really great experience. Mario and I met at a Starbucks in Mississauga and chatted for an hour and discovered we had a great number of things in common, including a love of cars, playing music, photography, and expensive watches. I was truly fascinated to learn about his business and about alternate sources of energy (sounds like I’m writing a grade 8 essay here), but given that we were complete strangers at the start, I really felt it was an hour well spent, and hopefully Mario is someone with whom I can keep in touch.

To use a photographic analogy that I have used for many years, it’s what I call the “Polaroid effect.” When you meet someone for the first time, the slate is quite blank and can remain that way, but as you talk, the colours appear…  That’s one of the great things about meeting people and about taking the time - in the true spirit of Time Management - to slow down and enjoy a slice of their life.

I enjoyed the whole experience of sponsoring this contest, and hopefully Mario will be coming out to see one of my band’s performances, and maybe taking a few pix. After all, he’s well qualified.

Lenzr agrees. He wins the grand prize, seen here, an Esquire Verve 2020 mens’ watch.

Ontario Tourist Attractions is a search for pictures that celebrate our province’s most interesting destinations. This web challenge asks users to upload scenic shots of small town main streets, famous buildings, museums and battlefield monuments. How about shots of the beach? Or pictures of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa? Or Chrysler’s Farm, or Lang Pioneer Village? How about shots of the steam train in Totenham? Added together with the location. the 140 character caption on each photo should somehow capture the essence of people enjoying the great outdoors in the Province of Ontario.

This contest is sponsored by Kanetix.ca, which is not an insurance company.

Founded by Gregory Ellis and George Small, Kanetix.ca offers Canadians a better way to shop for insurance. Incorporated in 1999, the Kanetix® insurance marketplace was launched online to offer instant insurance quotes from up to forty competing insurers.

The company saves consumers time and money. Up until the dawn of the internet, most Canadians were shopped for insurance by leafing through the phone book and calling brokers or agents they found through word-of-mouth or business cards. This is a time consuming process which discouraged people from actually shopping around to find the best price.

Kanetix.ca is Canada’s one-stop insurance marketplace. They’re an online insurance shopping tool that provides consumers with insurance information and quote comparison services from Canada’s top insurance providers to deliver unbiased information and quotes.

Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest commenced Sept 2nd 2009.   The contest end 12:01 am November 1st 2009.

The Prize: There’s a $200 value first prize, followed by a $100 second prize unit.

Friends and photographers visiting Lenzr.com last week migt have noticed some changes in the mix; there have been about twelve small fixes and three large alterations to the code.

Profound changes have been made to the way people vote on images.  We’ve abandoned the thumbs in favour of a rainbow coloured numeric scale for greater accuracy.

And there are now two kinds of votes, public and registered. Public votes are for fun and will not count for deciding winners. Registered votes are made by registered users. Participate in either way, and our system will log your computer’s IP address to prevent multiple votes.

Users cannot vote on their own photos. The image above was uploaded by quansathome; her computer will not show the rainbow vote bar.

Users can disable their accounts at anytime, and they can delete their photos within 24 hours of uploading them onto the site.

Do you have any suggestions?

Here’s Mario Pirraglia (mpirra on Lenzr.com) of Toronto relaxing last week in Berlin, Germany.

He’s thrilled to have won the prize, a luxury watch, while away on vacation. So far during this trip he’s been in Turin, Berlin, Helsinki and Zagreb. Next week he will be in Bolzano, Northern Italy and in Vevey, Switzerland. And finally after that he’ll be heading home to claim his prize as winner in the Lenzr photo contest.

Emergency in Toronto had 14 photos and 269 total votes. This was the hardest challenge but yet this was the contest that turned the most heads as people marveled at the quality of the submissions.  Photos like Mario’s prize winner add value to the entire site.

Mario’s photo, Firefighter saving lives carried the caption, “Toronto Firefighter returning from a fire” and soon collected 55 green thumbs up to win the challenge on August 31st 2009

Mario Pirraglia is a business executive in the natural gas vehicle industry that travels extensively for business. A passionate travel photographer, this gives him the opportunity to expand his portfolio.

The winning photograph entitled Firefighter saves lives was taken in 2003 during a fire in a high rise on Bloor Street just west of Keele.

The firefighter in the picture had just exited from the building after extinguishing a healthy blaze and rescuing an older gentleman from certain death.

Mario adds, “Firefighters are true heroes. I decided to highlight the firefighter by keeping him in colour while making the background black and white. This is an effect that I use quite often, and it’s one that you either love or hate.”

Congratulations Mario, your Esquire Verve luxury watch and time management guru Steven Prentice, the CEO of Bristall Morgan and the author of Cool Time will be waiting here in Toronto to present it to you upon your return.

Perhaps the answer to the eternal question “which smart phone should I choose, iPhone, Blackberry or Palm Pre?” has finally been answered.

Snickerzmom, who could have had any make and model, chose a new 16GB 3GS iPhone. The really interesting thing is that she already has an iPhone,  and yet she chose it again… What does that tell you?
Thursday Sept 3rd, 2009 inside the Rogers center at the Arriba restaurant at a cozy table by the window overlooking the Blue Jays practice before their game with the New York Yankees, Paul Peic of myCELLmyTERMS.com produces the grand prize for Snickerzmom and Dad.

Paul wrote about the Lenzr photo contest on The Cell Phone Blog, which is fast becoming a terrific niche destination for all Canadian cell phone users

What an amazing photo finish for Lenzr, Summer in Toronto July to Sept 2009

What a perfect end to a beautiful story about a web savvy woman with a camera phone seizing an opportunity to win another camera phone that’s made even more powerful by the recurring Blue Jays game motif. Is this true social media? You bet.  She couldn’t done it without her friends.
Colleen Cole of Brampton Ontario harnessed her friends on other social networks and brought them to the site, directly to her image using the link available on the vote page. Dad at The Game totaled 112 green thumbs up. Not bad considering there were 58 pictures and over 3700 votes.

The first photo contest on Lenzr was won with this photo.   Dad has the same enthusiastic expression on his face in every shot.

You can follow Talking Colleen on Twitter and find out more about the contests she enters there and what’s new with her ‘BF and three cats’.

There will be more information regarding the other two contest winners, and three new contests and sponsors and the changes that have been made to  Lenzr.com in the days to come.

The first contest period has ended now, September 1st 2009 and three winners have been declared. These members will soon be contacted by Lenzr admin re:  delivery of prizes, testimonials, and perhaps even candid self portraits. It was a very succesful launch and there were so many photos uploaded to the index we wondered about adopting some kind of photo Inventory Software to keep track of all the submissions in all different categories, and indeed this might be something we consider licensing in the future. In the meantime,

Best Toronto Skyline had 46 photos submitted, including some amazing shots with lightning and ducks and vintage shots of the skyline that have all together gathered up over 2500 votes.

The first contest was sponsored by Lenzr.com and brought a lot of attention to the site. The prize is a Pentax Optio P90 digital camera.

The winner is DuCourt, who describes himself in the third person in his Lenzr.com profile, “Thomas is a long-standing freelance film technician in the Toronto film industry who is attempting to transition into an on-set photographer”. That could explain the wide aspect ratio here.

The photo entitled Looking back is a wonderful panorama shot of the city and bears the Caption ‘I took this photo looking back from one of my favorite Toronto hang-outs - THE DOCKS driving range down on Cherry St.’ This photo won the prize with 107 green thumbs up.

Summer in Toronto had people snapping and submitting shots of anything and everything outdoors in Toronto . The rules were fast and loose to encourage mass participation.  This was the most successful contest with 58 pictures uploaded and over 3700 votes.

This contest was sponsored by myCELLmyTERMS and offers as reward one smart phone.

The winner is Snickerzmom, whose bio reads,  ‘just me, a great BF and three cats’.  She wins the grand prize with a picture of a man (her father?) at the Blue Jays game.

Dad at the Game had 112 green thumbs up and the caption may have contributed to the success of this image. Caption “This is one of my favourite pictures of my Dad. For me, enjoying the game with my Dad is one of the best things about TO. It’s our time!”

Stay tuned for more details on Snickerzmom meeting representatives of myCELLmyTERMS to declare her choice and receive the grand prize.

Which phone will she choose?
Emergency in Toronto had 15 photos and gathered over 300 total votes.

The contest was sponsored by Bristall Morgan and offers an Esquire Verve 2020 luxury watch as reward.

The winner is mpirra.  This photographer’s bio reads, ‘I have been an amateur photographer for the past 30 years. Would like to go pro one day‘.

The winning photo,  entitled Firefighter saving lives carries the helpful Caption “Toronto Firefighter returning from a fire”.  This image won the contest with 55 green thumbs up.

Emergency in Toronto event was the most rigidly thematic of Lenzr contest cycle #1. The web challenge tasked users to upload images of Toronto’s frontline emergency respeonse workers in action and because of the stern criteria it received the fewest votes, but perhaps the most attention. Some of our favourite photos have been uploaded here