I licensed this image yesterday for as much as I would have made in several months selling most of my best photographs at Getty Images. Licensing images without a stock photography agency is much more profitable.

P.T. Barnum is credited for once uttering the words, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

I don’t know how many photographers are walking the planet, but given what I learned these the past few years in the photography industry, I’d be willing to bet P.T. Barnum seriously underestimated the real number of suckers out there. I was reminded of this fact again this morning when I saw an article this morning on TMZ.com with the headline: “Tiger Woods Screws the Paparazzi.” And the paparazzi isn’t the only one who got screwed. Whether he knows it or not, the poor sap who snapped those photographs of Tiger Woods jogging also got screwed.

The images of Tiger Woods jogging somewhere near his home in Florida were taken by photographer Sam Greenwood. They were the first photographs of Tiger since the scandal hit the tabloids back in November. And while it was a major coup for Getty Images, the stock photography agency now peddling the images, Sam Greenwood probably lost out on a million dollars or more. And the paparazzi, which has been laying in wait like a bunch of hungry deer hunters for the past several months, is not the least bit happy.

Greenwood was hired as a staff photographer by the PGA back in 1990 and has been selling photographs of the PGA, NFL and NASCAR for several years now. He should have known how much those images would be worth. Yes, it is possible Greenwood was working as a shill for the PGA, Tiger Woods, and/or Getty Images. After all, each stands to profit from Tiger’s return to the professional golf tour, including Getty Images, who recently inked a new imaging agreement with the PGA according to CNN.

Tiger’s much anticipated press conference (and mea culpa) is scheduled for tomorrow. Releasing those photographs to the public prior to everyone seeing his crocodile tears on TV is probably a smart public relations move…especially since Woods was living under a rock for the past three months. Greenwood had access to the PGA and Tiger Woods, and given his solid (yet unremarkable) career in photography, it seems plausible someone called him and asked him for a favor…a million dollar favor.

I don’t know the man who took those photographs of Tiger Woods, but I do know plenty of photographers like him; both amateur and professional alike. The have all the talent and opportunity to photograph amazing images, but lack the business savvy when it comes to selling them. Stock photography agencies are selling photographs for a fraction of what they were once worth. Likewise, photographers are making much less, too. There are just too many people out there with a camera. Some know how to take a good photograph, and those who don’t? Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while.

Many photographers give away their images or sell them for next to nothing. And it really is a shame because they often have no negotiation skills and seriously underestimate their true value. This alone accounts for the biggest erosion of value in the stock photography industry. And the stock photography agency, the middle men of all middle men, are preying on everyone’s stupidity.

We might be suckers for believing Sam Greenwood stumbled onto a chance encounter of Tiger Woods jogging on the quiet streets of Orlando, Florida, but the bigger sucker is Sam Greenwood and all of the photographers just like him who license or give their images away for next to nothing.

UPDATE: Some are writing that Sam Greenwood is “pretty famous.” I might call him “accomplished,” but wouldn’t call him famous by any means. There are also some who think he is a staff photographer for Getty Images, which makes the likelihood of this photo op being much more staged than is being reported anywhere. If true, Sam Greenwood is a bigger sucker than I first imagined…and a shill.