Eight startup companies from around the world are in Syracuse working to get their ventures off the ground. They were chosen out of more than 300 companies to be a part of the first StartFast Venture Accelerator Program in Central New York. Over the next several weeks leading up to their demo day in August, we will introduce you to each of the companies. This week, our Katie Gibas introduces us to a photographer turned entrepreneur who's using his skills to making professional photo sharing easier.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Timothy Beckford is a professional photographer, but he realized he wasn't able to share photos with clients the way he wanted.

"There was no way for my clients to use the iPad, which is pretty awesome, to purchase their photos. It should be pretty simple to buy your photos from your photographer or share them to Facebook or share them to Twitter. But it was really difficult to do with the existing tools," said Timothy Beckford, the PadProof CEO and co-founder.

That's why two years ago, Beckford started PadProof, an iPad app that allows people to buy and share photos from their professional photographer.

"The experience online with a computer and a mouse, it's just not as enjoyable as doing it on the iPad. It's not touch based. So things can be faster and easier. So we feel like this is a major innovation. It's the first improvement of its kind in the proofing and sharing space in about ten years," said Beckford.

PadProof now has 200 professional photographers in six or seven countries using the service.

"We had the proofs before. The 4 x 6 proofs. This is like a virtual 8 x 10 proof. So you're seeing a huge high res image of exactly your moment and you're about to make a better decision about sharing it. From the photographer perspective, you work really hard to make sure your clients are getting the best quality images. You work really hard to get that shot. And now you're presenting it to them in a way that is the best presentation of all that hard work," said Beckford.

Right now, PadProof is working on implementing facial detection technology to find photos of you and loved ones amid the thousands of pictures from an event.