Lenzr.com: New Look, New Contests

Lenzr.com has been quietly revolutionizing the concept of online storytelling for the past two years through its serial photo contests. Now, as of June 1, 2011, Lenzr.com has an updated website featuring new technology so compelling it’s possible that photo contests may be the next big thing in terms of online marketing. It’s still essentially the same great site: budding photographers compete with each other, upload photos to the sponsored contests, persuade their friends and family to vote on their work and vie for real prizes whilst participating in a competitive, but also encouraging, photography community.

What the new site offers that the old Lenzr.com never had are ‘Community Contests’. These contests can be set up by anyone (an individual, business or organization) at any time, to show (not tell) the world about a story topic of their choice.

In addition to these exciting new changes, Lenzr.com has just launched four new sponsored contests, for prizes of laptops and digital cameras!

Summer Photo Contests on Lenzr.com

The Construction Sights photo contest is hoping to receive submissions illustrating a necessary summer protocol in the city: Construction. Like the glass analogy, there are two ways of looking at construction sites–positive or negative. On one hand, it’s hot, there’s dust flying around, and your bus has been detoured thanks to another construction delay. On the other hand, roads are being improved, housing is being created and many people are busily employed with construction work. There are two sides to this story–show us how you feel about the Construction Sights in your area and win!

The prize is a Sony laptop, courtesy of this contest’s sponsor, a family-owned Ottawa roofing company.

The Best Office Staff Party is looking to see submissions that juxtapose a stuffy office environment with a rollicking good time. How does your office let loose? Mini cupcakes? Interns working the ‘bar’? Who’s the life of the party–your boss? Show us your hilarious office party moments and don’t forget to include a sentence or two to put the photo in context. Also, while we want to see shots of people having a great time, make sure your co-workers are OK with your entry before submitting it–we are not responsible for any trouble you might cause!

The prize is a Sony laptop, thanks to an incredible IT staffing agency located in downtown Toronto.

The A Counting Exercise photo contest is looking for submissions featuring a repeating visual pattern to be counted. Tap into your inner Count von Count and take a look at the world from an arithmomaniac’s perspective: sure, those may be faces in a crowd, lines on the highway or a handful of pretzel sticks, but they’re counting exercises, too! Get creative with this one–this contest has received a lot of entries already featuring many amusing counting exercises. Show your never-ending profile in a three-way mirror, the Lego pieces your kids left all over the floor or a parking lot full of bicycles in a progressive European country–give the Lenzr judges something to count and you could win!

The prize is a Sony laptop, courtesy of this contest’s sponsor, a team of North York accountants.

Finally, the Shafts of Sunlight photo contest is looking to see tangible lines of natural sunlight in the submissions. There is something divine about the way light can take on the appearance of matter–observe in the picture to the right–these shafts of sunlight look almost like monkey bars sent down from the heavens. Try to capture a similar effect in your photo. This is the most specific contest; the rules state very clearly that shafts of sunlight, not other light tricks, are the desired outcome. Snap the most spectacular shaft of sunlight and you may win!

The prize is a Sony Cyber-Shot digital camera, courtesy of the contest’s sponsor, fittingly, a sunrooms installer.

Two more Lenzr photo contests: win great prizes!

Along with the three iPad photo contests Lenzr is hosting for October/November, there are two more worth checking out that also have great prizes. All the contests close on December 1, 2010.

The Water on Skin photo contest celebrates the difficult-to-obtain image of crisp water streaming off body parts or being scooped up by bare hands. This image is coveted because it evokes health, wellness and beauty. Submit your best shots (no inappropriate images, please!) for a chance to win $500 worth of products from a natural skin care company called Soya Boutique. All the company’s products are made with organic and GMO-free ingredients and are luxurious without being wasteful or harmful to the environment.

Seeing a pet bundled in a winter coat is enough to put a smile on most people’s faces, so Lenzr is celebrating the upcoming season with a Pets in Winter Coats photo contest. Take your best shots and submit them to Lenzr by December 1st for a chance to win a snow blower courtesy of a snow removal company servicing southwestern Ontario. The SnowMen serves both residential and commercial properties and work around the clock to ensure a snow-free drive.

Voting begins November 20th for both contests and all of them are open to residents of Canada age 13 and older (not valid in Quebec).

Solar Power Industry Embraces Lenzr in August

Thanks to government support and a multitude of determined environmental groups lobbying, we have new legislation, and now all Canadians can make and sell electric power to ‘the grid’, ostensibly the power can be made and consumed anywhere in North America, (but I’m told that small operations do present a challenge in terms of meeting and coordinating supply and demand).  Nicola Tesla would be proud; today there are almost a thousand independent power producers in Ontario alone.  Most of these individuals have solar panels, but some are selling wind power (and a rare few have small hydro electric dams – yes there is such a thing)

The  solar power industry now employs almost a hundred thousand people in Canada, and is rapidly expanding all over the world. Canadians import components from USA, Netherlands, Germany and Japan and China. In most cases the pieces are assembled in Canada, and some notable advances in the applications of solar power and batteries are exclusively Canadian.

In the months of August and September 2010, Lenzr can count itself among those employed in the rapidly expanding solar power sector in Canada. Three new contests are actively marketing solar power production and promoting solar energy to consumers.

The View From The Roof photo contest endeavours to collect the strange and wonderful scenery that’s ofetn only visible from rooftop, and consequently seldom seen by people who dont rise to the challenge. The sponsor of this challenge is a industrial roof repair expert who specializes in installing white roofs for solar power production. This contest shall collect the views from properties all across Canada. More details at the end, and on the Lenzr blog, All Weather Roofing Asks for your View From The Roof, win an iPad.

The Morning Sunshine photo contest on Lenzr is all about capturing and using solar power, in photography.

Participants are expected to use their cameras  to capture people and objects in the early morning sunshine.

Solarline Power assembles portable solar power generators (PSG’s) that quietly collect  deliver clean renewable energy to eco friendly habitats and construction sites, outdoor events and film productions.

Solarline Power makes and sell a mobile work unit that has on its top surface a giant adjustable solar panel that can be programmed tofollow the sun. below there are work stations that can be custimized to suit any business These units charge batteries that can replace small engines as a power source for many new eco conscious outdoor events and construction sites .

rimary objective is to help you create a backyard paradise.

People Building Things photo contest is also related to the solar power industry, and not just because the sponsor is an eco friendly solar powered deck building company.

Construction sites a more interesting when they happen at home, show us people building cool things in the basement, driveway, garage or backyard. Submit pics of  People Building Things and tell us the story behind the picture. Be sure and mention what’s being put together. 

In all three challenges, voting begins September 20th, the highest ranked photo will automatically Win an Apple iPad prize when all three web challenges end October 1st 2010. Must be 13yrs old or older to enter, open to all Canadians. Contest not valid in Quebec.

Ruth Wilgress, Expressive Art Therapy Toronto

Ruth Wilgress is starting a business that provides expressive arts therapy in Toronto.  She is working to perfect new programs and new methods of helping people through art.

Here’s a painting called The Rat Race which is one of her best.

Lenzr Photo Contest New Prizes From Mobile App Developer, Car Insurance Quotes, and Natural Medicine Clinic

Ontario photographers should be taking notes as they read this post of Ancestry Guru. There are three new photo contests on Lenzr to help beat the winter blues. These challenges will give shutterbugs something to do in the cold winter months of November and December 2009. ALL three challenges celebrate the great outdoors and the semi-tropical environs of Mother Nature.

Macro Photos of Life contest will magnify small life forms into horrifying creatures – larger than life.

Sponsored by an advanced Toronto Ontario Canada mobile app developer this company makes a device called ShrinkRay that is a powerful tool to port websites into mobile browser applications. This Device Management System (DMS) and an application toolkit makes great web 2.0 widgets that can be customized to suit any marketing mandate.

Locaboires are folks who insist on eating only locally produced foods and drinking water, local fruit juices and beverages that are made within a hundred mile radius of their homes. For people living in  Toronto this includes the wines of Eastern Ontario.

The Prize is a deluxe Locaboire vacation where you can drink the spirit of life in Prince Edward Co. in Eastern Ontario and enjoy their wine tour travel pckge for two adults that includes two meals and one night in a Brighton Ontario b&b

Medicinal Plants in Nature harvests botanical photography.

Lenzr members (you have to be a member to upload photos) are asked to document each plant’s medical properties. The winner of the contest will be part scientist and part artist and overall someone with an eye for natural beauty.

Lenzr hopes to index medical pictures of specific healing plants and their roots, tubers and flower blossoms. We expect to see fragrant tree moss,  wild mushrooms, tree gum and grass. Anything with medicinal properties is welcome in this contest.

There’s six different Neal’s Yard Remedies, created from botanical ingredients available as prize. This prize has been generously donated by Ontario best natural medicine clinic to the member that uploads the highest rated photo. That special photographer WINS Orange Flower Facial Oil, Yarrow & Comfrey Moisturizer, and White Tea Eye Gel, Orange Flower Facial Wash, Geranium & Orange Body Butter Rosewater Toner for a total retail value of $330.00* all prizes subject to availability

Ontario Tourist Attractions 2 photo contest is all about capturing the scenery, history, culture and geography of this great province. L0ok around Ontario at your pictures of the hot spots and monuments and ask yourself ‘are these the places that I think visitors might enjoying seeing for themselves when they visit this area?  Lenzr members are asked to present the most interesting travel destinations they have ever experienced.

Kanetix  specializes in delivering the lowest car insurance quotes and so it’s well suited to host this unique challenge.  It fits with their mandate of providing  satisfaction; they offer the best and most comprehensive quote search online, which makes people happy.

The people of Ontario like to explore the beaches outside historic forst and classic architecture that really defines our province. The lakes and waterfalls and battlefield museums and boardwalks attract millions of visitors each year.

Eco tourism These folks help catch the imagination of responsible pleasure seekers and Locaboires. is finally becoming more popular and at Lenzr we love to see people picking up liter and trash along the beaches and while hiking in the woods.

The winner of this contest is the member that uploads the top rated image January 1st 2010 and he or she will receive a prize of $300 American Express gift certificate.

CONTEST ENDS Jan 1st 2010 contest open to all Canadians except the residents of Quebec