Red River Pros: Bill Frakes

Bill Frakes is a Sports Illustrated staff photographer and has worked in more than 125 countries for a wide variety of editorial and advertising clients including Nike, Coca-Cola, Champion, Isleworth, Stryker, IBM, Nikon, Kodak and Reebok. Editorially his work has appeared in virtually every major general interest publication in the world and he has received hundreds of national and international awards for his work.

The Client

Personal work while on assignment for Sports Illustrated at the World Swimming Championships in Perth, Australia.

The Assignment

"I covered the competition which led up to the 2000 Summer Olympics. When not shooting the actual events for the magazine, I shot images, such as this one, for myself."

The Execution

"I lay flat on the practice pool deck with a Nikkor 600 F/4.0 lens on a Nikon F5 with Fujichrome 100 loaded. The image was done in the extreme early morning while the light was low and perfect and the pool fairly empty. The light bounced off the lane markers making the red and dark blue color reflections. More swimmers would have disturbed the even surface and the image would not have worked. The new swim caps added a surreal feel to the swimmer as he bobbed up and down in the water."

Post Production

As required.

The Output

With a shooting schedule of over 300 days a year I have to maximize my time no matter what the project. To achieve that objective when printing, I can count on two papers that I've found to give excellent results– Arctic Polar Luster, Polar Matte . The quality of these papers allows me to get consistent results. And when jobs call for other paper surfaces, Red River always has exactly the product I need to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Contact Info

Bill Frakes' web sites are at: www.billfrakes.com and www.strawhatvisuals.com

Favorite Papers

UltraPro Satin

UltraPro Satin looks and feels just like traditional photo lab paper and features a medium depth luster finish.

River Linen

River Linen adds a special dimension to your printed image with its premium quality linen surface paper.

Aurora Art

Made using fine 100% cotton rag content, Aurora Art White and Aurora Art Natural offers the look and feel of fine art paper.

Arctic Polar Satin

With its crisp blue white shade, Arctic Polar Satin ensures your images will project more brilliance. Its state of the art microporous coating will enhance details and color saturation.

Polar Gloss Metallic 255

Your images will take on a brilliant, almost luminescent quality with Polar Gloss Metallic 255. Everything from airplanes to flowers will look bolder, more saturated, and more real.