Press Release — Following it’s launch a couple of months ago, LightRocket, a new online website, media management and hosting service for photographers, is continuing its upwards trajectory. Entering the competitive space of established players such as PhotoShelter and Zenfolio, LightRocket offers photographers a fresh approach with a service that includes personalized photo websites, secure cloud storage, archive management and, importantly, an opportunity for sales to LightRocket’s extensive client base of around 6,000 professional picture buyers.

LightRocket differentiates itself from others in this sector by placing emphasis on maintaining a curated site that, say the site’s founders Yvan Cohen and Peter Charlesworth, aims to “inspire our current and future members as well as visiting editors”.

It a strategy that seems to be working. “We had editors from National Geographic in Washington get right back to the photographers for a couple of stories we sent out recently. The photographers were thrilled and it demonstrated that editors are willing to go direct to the photographer when they find a picture they like,“ says Cohen.

Nevertheless, the company’s founders are sanguine about the challenges faced by photographers today. “The market is experiencing massive supply,” explains CEO Peter Charlesworth. “When the number of buyers doesn’t increase at the same pace as supply, the laws of economics determine that prices are likely to fall and opportunities for sales will get harder. And we are certainly seeing that, which is why we seek to find a balance between providing services and opportunities for sales — ensuring our users get all round value.”

Meanwhile, LightRocket’s development team is working hard to maintain the company’s energy and forward momentum, with a steady flow of improvements and new features. “This is our passion,” says Peter Charlesworth. “We are committed to continually improving our service and expanding the raft of features on offer to our members. It’s like a fine wine. It gets better with age.”

Among recent upgrades is a useful new sharing feature that allows users to simply select any file from their archive and then share it to anybody for whom they have a valid email. The user can determine if sharing rights are just for viewing or allowing both viewing and download access. And if download rights are granted, users can resize files, determine the number of times a download link can be used and set an expiry date for the link.

“We’re all about empowering our members,” explains Peter Charlesworth. Other upgrades include new drag and drop features and greater compatibility with a broad range of file types.

LightRocket offers free 30-day trials and is celebrating its launch with discounts of up to 50% on the first year of membership. For more information visit www.lightrocket.com.