BitShelter LLC Press Release

Photographers Laforet, Frakes, Ashburn choose PhotoShelter as their Online Image Archive; Award Winning Photographers Making Full Use of PhotoShelter’s Low Cost, Geographically Redundant Storage System

PhotoPlus Expo 2005 Booth 582

NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 17, 2005—Digital storage platform provider BitShelter LLC today announced the launch of PhotoShelter (www.PhotoShelter.com), an online image archive service and marketplace.

Vincent Laforet, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer with The New York Times; Bill Frakes, a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated Magazine; and 2004 Canon Female Photojournalist Award winner Kristen Ashburn are among PhotoShelter’s initial clients.

Built by the engineers behind the success of HotJobs.com, PhotoShelter offers professional photographers a truly affordable and robust archive system, along with the tools and resources they need to turn their storage into sales.

“The shift to digital photography has created a modern crisis: How do photographers store terabytes of images, while providing immediate access and searchability to generate sales?” says Allen Murabayashi, CEO of PhotoShelter and former Senior Vice President of Engineering at HotJobs.com. “Desktop hard drives, DVDs and even consumer-level RAID do not provide a long-term solution to the problem.”

PhotoShelter solves this dilemma by providing secure storage that is both locally and geographically redundant, with 24-hour online accessibility.

What’s more, it serves as a sales platform, allowing photographers to create galleries, sell images, add search capabilities to their own sites and create RSS syndication feeds. Because PhotoShelter wants to empower photographers to turn their archive into a source of revenue, there are no commission fees, and plans start at just $5.99/month.

“The features and workflow components of PhotoShelter are a perfect tool for freelance photographers. I haven’t found anyone else out there who can compete,” says Laforet. “This service gives me much greater freedom - instead of being bogged down by technology, I am liberated by it, both in terms of time saved and much greater mobility.”

PhotoShelter offers photographers:

—Bulletproof archiving that is both locally and geographically redundant

—Commission free image licensing and sales

—Ability to add image search capabilities to personal sites

—Ability to create RSS and ATOM syndication feeds

—A “Virtual Agency” service that allows photographers to group together for marketing purposes yet retain full control of their images

PhotoShelter offers Photo Buyers:

—Deal directly with a photographer and not a middlemen

—A directory of photographers within a specified area or budget, or with a particular specialty

—View galleries through password-protected invitations

PhotoShelter will make its premier at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City, Oct. 20-22, booth 582.

About BitShelter
BitShelter, LLC creates technological solutions built upon the BitShelter Digital Asset Storage Solution platform. Founded in 2005, BitShelter is committed to developing products that help people protect and manage their digital assets. Our principals include professionals that have designed, developed and managed some of the largest websites in the world.