Hey David,
This should be an utter no-brainer, but as usual Apple falls short when it comes to providing for users' convenience.
I've played with keybindings, and they're quite powerful if a bit obscure. I've never mapped the contextual menu though, so you're on your own there.
Text System Defaults and Key Bindings
You can also use a Keyboard Maestro found-image action to find the highlighted file using the highlight color. See this:
Drag Finder selection to "Found Image" in Chrome Browser window - #11 by ccstone
-Chris