Distance is a bit of an issue in Australia and every year we shoot a number of drought-related features that require us to drive 8, 10 or even 12 hours inland. Out there is where it’s really dry, where some farms haven’t seen rain for five years.
 
Climate change is a big issue in our patch of the planet, which covers Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, and some South Pacific nations that are at risk of vanishing because of rising sea levels. Droughts are getting longer and the cyclones that form in the Indian and Pacific Oceans each year keep getting bigger. Reporting on these subjects makes us ever more aware of the damaging effects humans can have on the environment.

 
So we got to thinking: Wouldn’t it be nice to convert our workplace to a warm, fuzzy, green operation and help save the globe? If only we had the money for that…
 
Well, it’s 2008 and things have changed. Reuters Pictures Down Under has charged head first into the Green Era, working hard to save the planet and harder to save money!
 
Of course, we did all the usual things like using less paper, not printing emails unless absolutely necessary and increasing our reliance on digital communication because it means less paper, less ink and less time. The office has also removed nearly all rubbish bins, replacing them with a range of recycling boxes for paper, plastic and so on. Reuters also removed the need for bottled water (which accounts for thousands of tons of plastic and greenhouse gases from transportation, production, etc) by installing chilled water filter outlets in the kitchen.

 
However, our biggest change so far has been road transport. In November one of our car leases came due. We dumped our 6 cylinder gas guzzler for a neat hybrid, which by the way has more cargo space than the previous road warrior. It’s pretty zippy, feels like driving a spaceship and since we took delivery in mid November have used a little over 6 tanks of fuel…
 
It’s warm, it’s fuzzy, but it also makes economic sense. Our annual lease is A$1,000/year less than the larger car and our fuel saving is expected to be around A$1,600/year. Oh, and as a sweetener, pretty much the whole of the first year’s fuel is covered by the manufacturer’s gift of $1000 of worth of free petrol. We have two pix cars in Sydney so as the price of fuel keeps heading up we expect to be saving about A$5,500 a year on cars alone. Think of the extra feature jobs you can do with a saving like that!
 
Get out there. Go Green. Save dough and save the planet!

Australian Midnight Open.

The Australian Open tennis tournament director is under pressure to resign for it.
Australia’s top seeded player is furious about it.
Three quarters of ticket holders decided not to wait around for it. 

The Australian Open is always a long two weeks but you know you’re in for an extra late finish when the first photographer to get the ‘night off’ leaves at 11.30pm. The seed was planted during the afternoon when world number one Roger Federer, in a display of failing form, took well over 4 hours to subdue his third round opponent. As a result the evening session didn’t kick off until almost 10pm. The night wore on and as the ranks in the court side photographer’s pit thinned Darren Whiteside and I carried the Reuters flag for the second match on the sched which started close to midnight. Crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus up against local bad boy Lleyton Hewitt. And what do you know? It was a five setter 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3…..

Spectators fell asleep, ball boys fell asleep, and journalists fell asleep but not us. This match smashed a new late finish record, with Hewitt putting down the winning serve at about 4.37am the following day.  Throw in post match editing, organising gear for the following day and packing up, we got to our hotel around 5.45am and I pulled the covers over my head just as the sun began to rise.

We’d had 17 straight hours on court shooting with hard seats, bad food and bloodshot eyes but we’re smacking our lips for more.