Come one … Come all … Spread the word!!  It’s time for the

2011 Cycle & Style Photo Contest.

This year’s theme is:

“In My Hometown”

Please send your photo to:  bethrunkle@cycleandstyle.com  by November 15th with your name, email address and explanation of your photograph.  Remember the theme – “In My Hometown” – and we’d like to see a love of bicycling and pride in the area you live in included in your entry.

KEYHOLE™ - Hands-Free Camera Harness For the Active Photographer

After all submissions are in, the photographs will be posted and our readers will vote on their favorite.

Here’s a look back at the 2010 Photo Contest Entries:

 THE PRIZE:

Cycle & Style will send the winner a KEYHOLE™ -a Hands-Free Camera Harness. We thought it was a great prize for those who love to cycle and take photographs. The Keyhole is a hands-free restraining and protection device for neck strap suspended camera equipment used on the trail, by securing the camera to your body by means of a harness and pointing the lens down rather than outward.

You don’t know how excited I was to find this harness system for myself. I am even more excited to share it with the winner of the photo contest and tell everyone else about it. As a photographer who rides a mountain bike I have a dilemma: either  keep my camera in its bag on my back with the possibility of me missing that perfect picture OR I wear my camera hanging from the strap dangling heavy from around my neck – bouncing back and forth against the front of me. Ouch!! Yes, I have done both and can’t tell you how frustrated and sore I get.

I was so excited to find Deborah at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake
City this past summer. She had a device to keep my camera is safe, secure and yet be able to go from “hands-free” to “ready-to-shoot”. With Deborah’s invention, I am ready to catch that perfect shot on the trail.

It was while Deborah Carr was on a hiking trip on the Inca Trail in Peru that she came up with the idea for the Keyhole Hands-Free Camera Harness. Deborah said it was frustrating that her camera wasn’t readily accessible because there was a walking stick either in one or both hands and it was hanging around her neck swinging back and forth. If she wanted to have a water bottle with her … well now the camera was definitely in her backpack and she had missed all of the good photo opportunities!! Secondly, hiking and camera safety were huge concerns for Deborah and the other hikers. “If you held your camera in your hand while hiking, protecting the camera was the primary concern and hiking up the uneven steps provided an uneven and unbalanced hiking experience, she said. Or your camera could be easily bumped and possibly run into rock structures or other objects if it was hanging on your hip by the passing oversized packs of a Sherpa. Hey… that’s just not good on your camera equipment! The planning began and the product was born.

Since the trails of Peru it has been designed and tested extensively for biking, skiing and of course hiking type activities.  It is simple to use.  It attaches to your own backpack or chest harness shoulder straps and you are ready to go!!  I was so excited to find Deborah at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City this past summer.  The KEYHOLE™ is exactly what I am looking for on the trails when I am out on my bike and see that perfect picture or out on a C&S Photo Shot!  THANKS Deborah!!  Also thanks for sharing this KEYHOLE™ with the winner of our 2011 C&S Photo Contest!!

Good Luck everyone!!  Remember … pass the word … “In My Hometown”!!