Photography commissioned for PBs Nature:
Treasure of the Caribbean on location in belize
behind the scenes
PBS commission programmes with the request of a professional photographer being commissioned to deliver a limited set of exclusively licensed stills photographs to their specification alongside the programme. I have shot for PBS science and nature films, and have a knowledge of what they want.
For this film about a recently discovered coral reef I was commissioned to do ‘topside’ stills, delivering portraits; landscapes & seascapes; science in action; reconstruction; still life; actuality and behind the scenes. In total I delivered contact sheets of 327 of the best images roughly edited for production to chose from. This saves someone in the production office having to collate images from everyone on the shoot and then try and make something work, whilst hoping for coverage of events, which is time consuming.
Production have first option on all the images. Any not exclusively licenced, around 10 polished images on this job, will be confidentially stored until after the programme is aired. Production only pay for what they use, which keeps the cost down, and they get a professional ready to use, cohesive, polished collection of images.
Contractual boundaries negotiated at the start of the process are slightly different on each production, and sensitivities such as confidentiality, use on social media and pre-broadcast publications are strictly adhered to.
Copyright on all these images: ©Tamara Stubbs. They may not be used or copied under any circumstance without permission of the copyright owner.