I was pretty excited, and pretty nervous, to spend time photographing Bill Walton for this profile by Dagny Salas.
It’s often intimidating to photograph someone who’s been through so many photo shoots in their life. Walton, for example, has had his portrait shot by some of the world’s greatest sports photographers, including Walter Iooss Jr. and Peter Read Miller.
So getting an original image of Walton was both challenging and something that needed to be done quickly, as I had limited time to make the photo.
The location I settled on for the shoot was Helix High School. It’s Walton’s alma mater and I figured the administration would be quite agreeable in allowing me to use their gym for the shoot.
Walton loved it. He instantly began telling me and Salas how we were on sacred grounds and asked for me to get Scottie, the school’s mascot, into the picture.
The image we used for the story didn’t have Scottie (sorry Bill) but I wanted to share some of the other pictures we made. I even pulled out my iPhone and made a few frames with the Hipstamatic app.
— SAM HODGSON