Occasionally, I like to do interviews here are on IBR but this time I was really looking forward to doing this one. The subject this time is sports photographer Cary Frye. Those baseball fans who attend games at Illinois Field will probably recognize Cary with his signature orange cap usually worn backwards.
As an amateur photographer, I’m somewhat envious of Cary. After all, he has nice expensive cameras slung over his shoulder and he has these nice long telephoto lenses. Seriously, Cary is one of the best and to top it off he is a top notch guy who is always willing to chat at the ballpark. Lucky for us, he was willing to answer a few questions for the IBR.
Illinois Baseball Report: A lot of us see you taking photos at Illinois sporting events
but tell us who you are. Who do you take photos for and how did you get connected with Illini sports?
Cary Frye: I’m Cary Frye a freelance photographer who lives in Champaign, I shoot for basically anyone who’ll hire me, many times its just for an event or game. Other times it could be for an entire season. I’ve shot for several Newspapers, web sites and a couple of magazines. As for working with Illinois it just kind of happened over time, I started out helping them on one sport and then another and as I got better equipment and became a better photographer they kept giving me more sports to shoot.
IBR: Canon or Nikon? Or maybe something else?
CF: Nikon I don’t really have a preference with Nikon or Canon their both the tops in their field, it’s just that when you start with one, you pretty much have to stay with that brand because of the cost of getting all new equipment.
IBR: Without getting too technical, walk us through a sporting event from your perspective. How many photos do you take at one game on average and how long does it take to process them afterwards?
CF: For football and basketball I usually try and get to the game 2 hours before it starts, all other sports about 30-45 minutes before they start. At times I may have specific things that I need to shoot during the game, it could be an award 
being presented during a timeout or someone throwing out the first pitch etc. With shooting the game itself the game usually dictates what I do and at other times I may plan on trying something new like shooting from different spots or angles. On average I take about 500 photos per game, shooting a 1,000 isn’t out of the norm, it really depends on the game and how much action is involved.
IBR: What gives you more personal satisfaction, getting the homerun shot or a photo of the diving grab at third? Has there been one particular shot that you captured that you are particularly proud of?
CF: That’s a tuff one, I guess it would be getting whatever the big play would be, that’s what makes shooting sports so much fun, any night something special could happen and if you capture the moment in a photograph its something you can treasure forever. For all time favorite, I’d have to go with my top 5 in no particular order.
IBR: I know you shoot a variety of sports. Are there any that are more difficult than others to photograph?
CF: Football is probably the toughest, one because you have to move up and down the field with all your equipment. It’s fast moving and covers a large area and you have to keep alert and try not to get ran over on the sidelines. But that’s also what makes it the funnest to shoot as well.
CF: Not that I have found!
Thanks to Cary for taking the time from his busy photographer schedule to answer some questions. You can see some of Cary Frye’s fine work over at IllinoisLoyalty.com. He is also on Twitter @illiniphotog.