A Sports Illustrated Staff Photographer, Bill Frakes has worked in more than 100 countries for a wide variety of editorial and advertising clients, including Nike, Coca-Cola, IBM, Nikon, Kodak, and Reebok. His images have appeared in virtually every major general interest publication in the world, earning Frakes hundreds of national and international awards.

When Frakes photographs an image, he doesn't just capture an event, he captures personality. His career started at the Miami Herald where his days were filled with assignments. One project that veered far from those daily assignments was the year he spent documenting a friend's struggle with cancer. The project allowed Frakes to tell a personal story through his images and his notes. "Missy Koch was a terrific soccer player I had photographed while she was still in high school," recalled Frakes. "She embodied the energy, vitality and future of possibilities that comes with youth. All that changed in a moment during one routine doctor's visit."

Missy had found an unassuming lump on her foot. What the doctor discovered was a malignant sarcoma and the cancer had rapidly spread to her leg. Frakes captured Missy's battle through pictures and her resilience following the amputation of her leg. The pictorial feature appeared in the Miami Herald's Sunday magazine on Christmas 1986.

"Missy's story was one that had to be told because it is perspective-changing. A story like this makes you realize that life can change in a moment. Missy showed everyone that challenges can be overcome. She promised me she would walk again — and she did."

To follow a story for a full calendar year would be considered something of a luxury in the world of daily newspapers. The time Frakes spent documenting Missy, on top of his regular assignment load was well worth sacrificing his personal time. It is his willingness to get to know his subject and his ability to capture a story that brings emotion to the surface that has propelled Frakes to the top of his field. The freedom to be creative and free from daily assignments was given to Frakes when he signed his contract with Sports Illustrated in 1992. He works constantly and as a staff photographer, he enjoys access to prominent figures given only to the most prestigious of publications. His images are thought-provoking and have scripted talk around the office water fountain. Frakes found a little town in Nebraska which, despite its size, exemplified the joy of football even though its high school only enrolling 22 students.

"The town of Arthur, Nebraska has a population of 145 people. Because they have so few residents they play six-man football instead of the traditional 11. The spirit and rivalry is present on their six-man team and I was able to spend time documenting their Homecoming week in 2002. This is the type of assignment I enjoy and that SIgives me the independence to pursue."

The images of Arthur convey the player's sheer love of the game, and how it brings together the community. Even without enough players for a scrimmage (only 11 boys attend the high school) Arthur has won multiple state championships and has earned the respect of a football passionate state.

With an eye for personality and emotion, sports photography and portraiture is Frakes' specialty. Sporting events run the gamut of emotion from the thrill of victory, the struggle of competition, the heart-ache of defeat. Frakes takes the time to see another side of the athlete and bring that emotion to the page. "There are a lot of photographers at every event and with the proliferation of the Internet, I am challenged to capture a new perspective that will resonate 4-5 days later when it runs on the pages of Sports Illustrated."

A prime example of this is his photo of Rebecca Twigg, Olympic Cycling Champion and World Racing Champion. Looking beyond the athlete, Frakes' picture shows Rebecca wearing a dress while jubilantly riding a $20 bike from goodwill. Frakes is able to portray Rebecca, a 16-time national champion, as a fun and free-spirited girl like no other photographer can.

For Frakes photography is not a job, it's a lifestyle he feels lucky to have. Photographers are a tight community. While fiercely competitive, Frakes believes they need to be there for one another by sharing information, equipment and techniques. Giving back to the photography community is a priority for him. He spends countless hours speaking at colleges, mentoring students and participating in workshops to share what he's learned with the next generation of photographers.

With so much competition in photography, the recipe for success means having the right tools and knowing how to use them. His willingness to take chances and calculated risks is part of what sets Frakes apart from the pack. "A tremendous amount of planning goes into each shot to ensure that it will stand the test of time. Sometimes you get lucky, and that's when you need to think on your feet and have the reflexes to act," he advises. "Take the time before a shoot and plan to have everything you need so you can take advantage of the time you're given."

Frakes and PhotoShelter

In the deadline-driven worlds of photojournalism and advertising, editors and clients need their images at a moment's notice. This can be challenging for photographers like Frakes, who spend 80 percent of their lives on the road. While he can remotely access his at-home storage through his virtual private network (VPN), Frakes appreciates the comfort of knowing his most valued images are safely stored and readily accessible on PhotoShelter.

"If I have an hour to work on a project in an airport, my images are available and accessible on PhotoShelter," said Frakes, who spoke in between games at the 2007 NCAA Women's Basketball Championships in Cleveland. Frakes described a recent trip to an ocean side coffee house south of Barcelona.

"I thought the client had all the images they needed for their advertisement, until I received a call at 11:30 p.m. Turns out, the client needed more images and needed THEM yesterday." From that coffee house, Frakes was able to easily find the images and using PhotoShelter's integration with Apple Aperture, quickly upload the images and meet the client's deadline.

"PhotoShelter recognized that integration with applications such as Apple Aperture is essential to developing a useful product. Uploading from Aperture is quick and smooth and gets my images where they need to be, from wherever I am."

By looking at Frakes' website, billfrakes.com, you wouldn't know that it's powered by a third-party service and that's exactly how PhotoShelter and its users like it. Utilizing PhotoShelter's seamless customization, Frakes can maintain his website through PhotoShelter without sacrificing the unique brand image that he has worked tirelessly to develop.

Before he utilized PhotoShelter, developing and updating his website was a manual process, requiring a professional developer to code. A web presence is practically a requirement today but photographers would rather spend their time on the more profitable and enjoyable aspects of the photography business such as taking pictures. Launched on PhotoShelter in 2006, his new website is far more efficient and updates can be made quickly, easily and without the services of an IT pro.

"Creating new public and private galleries is easy and proficient. Using PhotoShelter I can drag and drop the appropriate images so fast it's ridiculous," exclaimed Frakes. "PhotoShelter has saved me an immeasurable amount of time and energy."

With mirrored data centers on the East and West Coasts of the United States, each employing RAID technology, PhotoShelter provides photographers with disaster-proof storage that is both locally and geographically redundant. Knowing this helps Frakes sleep at night. Wherever he may be traveling, Frakes can upload his most valuable images to his PhotoShelter archive and know that they are protected no matter what happens to his local storage.

"PhotoShelter gives me confidence knowing my images are available on a live server, in two data centers and available to me whenever I need them. When I finish an assignment, I take my favorite shots and upload them the PhotoShelter."

PhotoShelter will continue to be an essential tool for Bill Frakes. "They're us. The PhotoShelter folks are photographers themselves so they're always thinking about how to make it better. My most valuable images are backed up PhotoShelter and it's with confidence that I trust them with my work."