It’s time once again to open up your photo archive, fire up your image editor, and get ready for our annual EcoVelo Photo Contest. The theme this year is “Why I Ride”. We’re looking for photos that capture the essence of what we bicyclists love about riding, images that illustrate what it is that keeps us coming back to the bike, day-after-day, year-after-year. Send us your best shot that captures why you ride, and you just might win some cool prizes while earning a few bragging rights too.

As an added twist this year, we’re allowing participants to also submit an optional short essay (150 words or less) along with their photo. If you choose to submit an essay, it should also be about why you ride, and hopefully, tie-in with your photo. The essay is totally optional, but if you think it will help sway the judges in your favor, then by all means, send one along.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, we’re also reserving one prize for a “Readers’ Choice” award. Once all of the entries are in, we’ll set-up a poll and you, our readers, will be able to vote for your favorite entry to receive that single prize. It should be a lot of fun.

This year’s prize list is amazing. The Grand Prize is a Civia Midtown Commuter Bike and a grab bag of goodies. The first three runners up will receive gift certificates from Rivendell Bicycle Works (valued at $400, $200, and $100 respectively) along with other prizes. Have a look at the extensive prize list here.

Contest Rules

• All are welcome — amateurs and pros alike.
• Please submit only one photo.
• The work must be your own.
• Please submit only photos that include bicycles and express something about why you enjoy riding your bicycle.
• Photos must be rated “G”.
• We prefer files that are no smaller than 1000 pixels on the long side.
• Sorry, but prizes can only be shipped within the continental U.S. If you’re from outside the U.S., you’re still eligible for prizes if you can provide a U.S. shipping address.
• The photographer retains full copyright of their image and the entry will only be published on EcoVelo as part of the contest.

Send your entries as e-mail attachments to alan@ecovelo.info. Include your full name in the body of the e-mail and “EcoVelo Photo Contest” in the subject line (very important!).

The entry period is now open and we’ll close it off on November 1. Like we did for our previous photo contest, we’ll publish the photos on the blog as they come in. Once the entry period is closed, we’ll pick the winners by jury and announce the results here. Good luck!

[View the contest terms and conditions here.]