Friday, February 06, 2009

The person who sold the Phelps photo may have received less than $5,000 for it!

A photographer who works those worlds between red carpet photography and editorial photography contacted me this morning regarding the Phelps photographer. I was told that the scoundrel who took the photo has NOT syndicated it thus denying themselves thousands-of-dollars in profits.

The "photographer" was smart enough to realize that the police or perhaps a good lawyer would subpoena the identity since syndication is a business not a journalistic endeavor and thus protections from revealing a source do not exist.

He estimated that the Photographer made less than $5,000.

Can you imagine that? Destroying somebody for $5,000! Why not just give the phone to Phelps and tell him, "I could have sold for it for $5,000, instead keep the phone as a reminder of how stupid you should not be. Oh, and you owe me a new phone."

Instead the person is probably feeling horrible that they may be found out

8 comments:

Rob D said...

$5000 is so not worth it. When people finally figure out who that kid is he's going to wish he'd never sold that picture. Yeah he made 5 G's but he also put himself at the scene of the "crime" and is about to draw a ton of bad media exposure upon himself... what a dumb ass.

Tony Austin said...

President Clinton: Pot
President Bush: Cocaine, Alcohol, Pot
President Obama: Coacaine
Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Pot
Vice President: Al Gore
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau: Pot
Carl Sagan: Pot

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/archive/index.php/t-1662303.html

Anonymous said...

I hope his entire frat is run off the USC campus.

Tony Austin said...

I think the person will be named soon.

Anonymous said...

As much as I hate people who snap photos of celebrities in private moments like Phelps and Kate Moss doing coke I don't think the photographer should be named. Till I purchased my iPhone I refused to buy a phone with a camera. I really do believe that camera phones should be outlawed in public places including on all college campuses.

Phelps career is not destroyed. Come July and August at FINA Worlds he'll come out on top and be back in the public's good side. This is just a case of the media building up our heroes and tearing them down as it sells.

I believe that this is even good for the sport. Isn't it the PR people who say that there is no such thing as bad press? Swimmers are human and we all just got 15 more minutes of press time on our sport. Maybe Phelps knew what he was doing as he did once say he wanted to make swimming more than a once every four years sport?

Rob D said...

The way the world is, whoever snapped that picture will be unintentionally famous eventually and I don't think he's going to enjoy the attention.

@Joel I agree with you. Michael isn't destroyed, he'll win more races and be wonderful once again... this wasn't particularly helpful to his image though.

The upside is people care about an Olympian the year after the Olympics. Not for the right reasons but who cares? He just created a newsworthy storyline. Can MP redeem himself in the pool after smoking weed? Now people will be intrigued enough to watch the Worlds in Rome and maybe we'll see something exciting out of some other swimmers. It will give swimmers like a Ryan Lochte (who I think is way more marketable) a second chance to shine in front of the American public.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the photographer could be a female.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090208/SPORTS17/90208028

I personally am waiting for the day the photographer is named so the chastising can begin.

Tony Austin said...

YOU ROCK!!!!!!

i am making it into a post