From Singapore-based “processors” Angie Tan, Janice Kaur, and Dharma Haroun

Konnichiwa!

We recently spent 10 days as part of the Reuters pictures team at the 11th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka and what an experience it was! Osaka brought together Reuters photographers from all over the world and sub-editors from the Global Pictures Desk in Singapore.

The crew comprised of Primary Editors Tom Szlukovenyi and Michael Leckel; us, the Processors Angie Tan, Janice Kaur and Dharma Haroun; photographers Michael Dalder, David Gray, Issei Kato, Dylan Martinez, Kai Pfaffenbach, Brian Snyder, Ruben Sprich and Bobby Yip; remote editor Gary Hershorn in New York, sub-editors on the Reuters Global Pictures Desk in Singapore and last but not least technicians Matt Bowers and Duncan Alston.

The photographers are assigned various positions: in-field and out-field from which they covered the action and the reactions. Their pictures were transmitted to the editors and processors in the stand, who worked with the Singapore desk to ensure these images hit the wire in the best possible shape and as quickly as possible. 

The Editors kept an overall view of proceedings and ensured that the team were on top of the story behind the races too, but they were mainly occupied selecting and cropping the images for the wire from the 2,000-3,000 frames produced each day, which were then passed to us, the Processors for tone and colour balancing and captioning.  In between events, we compiled event listings for the following day and acted as extra sets of eyes for the editors, updating them on the latest results and flagging mishaps and controversies during the competition. During the events we also found ourselves acting as the middlemen between the photographers, editors and the Singapore desk, which kept things lively.

The Global Pictures Desk in Singapore received the ‘processed’ images from Osaka, double-checked the captions, ensuring they were factually correct and adhered to the Reuters style, add client address codes and transmited the images around the world within minutes of the event. Photos of record-breakers, photo finishes and finals being prioritised to ensure hit deadlines. 

.

 Michael Dalder adjust his remote camera 

The team worked in the stadium from 7 a.m. until midnight on most days. The sweltering 35 degree Celsius heat was challenging and the glaring sunlight made things difficult uncomfortable for those working on laptops in the tribune, but it was the photographers we felt sorriest for, lugging their heavy gear around and standing for hours in the mercilessly scorching sun. But it didn’t affect their ability to work and the stream of images they delivered of the thrilling events unfolding on the field was superb, keeping the Editors on their toes as they tried to keep the file tight and numbers of images manageable.

The days were long for us but the technicians were always there before us and last to leave at night, however, a quick dinner and a cold glass of lemon chuhai, the drink of choice at this competition made from lemon juice and shochu, a distilled spirit, proved to be an effective remedy to most of our problems.  

Roll on the Olympic Games!

Sayonara!
Angie Tan, Janice Kaur, Dharma Haroun

Athletics pictures by Dylan Martinez, Bobby Yip, Dylan Martinez and Ruben Sprich respectively.