Scott Dudelson has found a way to make a buck while enjoying one of his favorite pastimes – attending concerts and music festivals.
The chief operating officer of Prodege, an El Segundo company that operates online rewards website SwagBucks.com, spends his weekends as a concert photographer. His photos have been published in the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly and a number of music publications.
Dudelson, 32, had no photography experience when he first started snapping shots at concerts. He’d been freelancing as a music critic, but when he helped found Prodege in 2006, he realized he needed to find a hobby that was less time consuming but still let him enjoy the occasional free concert.
“It was just a way for me to get into these concerts,” he said. “But it turned out that I loved it.”
Dudelson recently shot photos at downtown’s FYF Fest and the Rock the Bells hip-hop festival in San Bernadino. Publications hire him to attend the concerts and pay him up to $500 for a photo, but he said he’s not in it for the extra money.
“There are a lot of photographers out there that would love to be in the position I’m in,” he said. “I just feel very fortunate that I can do it.”
Strike a Match?
When Brian Wallos, founder of a West Hollywood trading card company featuring photos of models, was recently selected to be on the reality television show “Millionaire Matchmaker,” he realized he might have an image problem.
Here’s how the Bravo TV show’s producers portrayed him in the setup to his appearance last month, which included a prep session with matchmaker Patti Stanger:
“Patti is skeptical about her first millionaire this week, 42-year-old Brian Wallos, a wannabe Hugh Hefner who made his millions by making trading cards that feature scantily clad women. Surrounded by beautiful women all the time, Brian hasn’t been on a traditional date in years, but swears he is capable of monogamy.”
Wallos acknowledged that it’s easy for women to be put off, which has hampered his dating life. But he didn’t mind being likened to Hefner, calling him a “great entrepreneur and wonderful philanthropist … who saved the Hollywood sign.”
But after some coaching from Stanger, Wallos did his best to appear un-Hefner like on the show, acting graciously toward the women.
So how did the matchmaking turn out for Wallos?
He’s still dating Debra, one of the women he was matched up with on the show. But he wouldn’t say whether there were wedding bells in his immediate future.
According to his latest blog entry on the show, “Debra is a beautiful and classy girl. We are having a lot of fun together. That’s all you need to know.”
Staff reporters Natalie Jarvey and Howard Fine contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
