QuickLinks For 2006-06-19

• $150 for a photo on a 39-cent-stamp:
  Carl Purcell is a travel photographer whose art has graced publications ranging from National Geographic and U.S. News and World Report to travel sections in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Still, an online archive at corbis.com is home to 12,800 of his more than 300,000 photos and is a primary source of income for him. One popular photo alone -- of palms blowing in a typhoon in the South Pacific -- has netted more than $25,000, Purcell says.

But this 77-year-old retiree's most famous image -- a billowing American flag merged with the Statue of Liberty -- appears on a 39-cent stamp. [..] Unfortunately for Purcell, the 8-year-old image credited to him and his former wife, Ann, was one of a handful of royalty-free photos available from an Internet archive. "The only payment I got for it was a check for $150," he says ruefully.
Orlando Sentinel, Clermont resident finds world travel a snap.
Tags: photo on stamps

Comments

[Tim]

Aua. Lesson learned: never giv e your best shot to a royalty-free stock agency. I bet he is glad that he never gave the photo of the typhoon to that agency..