WNBA Star Naz Hillmon Thought She Knew Every Angle of the Game. Then She Stepped Behind the Lens.

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Naz Hillmon knows how to shoot. Most days, the Atlanta Dream forward is doing it with a basketball in her hands. But lately, she’s been practicing a different kind of shot—one that takes her off the court and behind the lens.

The WNBA star has been curious about photography since her younger years, capturing AAU road trips, morning dew on the grass, and any memory she wanted to hold on to. She took a photography class in high school, where she learned how to shoot on film and develop the images herself. But she leveled up her hobby game about a year ago when her mom gifted her a Sony a7 III. “It’s my baby,” Hillmon tells Women’s Health. The camera travels with her now, tucked in her bag for road games and pulled out whenever she needs a mental break.

Basketball can easily become all-consuming—practices, games, film, travel. Hillmon is currently halfway around the world with the USA Basketball 3×3 Women’s National Team, competing in Bangkok, Thailand. Before she got her camera, basketball road trips often meant ordering food to her hotel and staying in for the night, her mind racing about the game before or the game after. “Now, I’m getting a chance to explore the city a little bit, get some fresh air, and not be cooped up in my hotel room,” she says. Photography creates a pause in a schedule that doesn’t stop moving. “It really does take my mind off of everything, because I’m thinking about the moment.”

Hillmon shares her photos on Instagram on her dedicated photography page, @nazgraphy_pics. The subject matter varies, but she’s especially drawn to the architecture of big cities like New York—bridges, buildings, clean lines, and symmetrical windows.

She spent much of this WNBA offseason, however, under the sunny skies of Miami, Florida, playing for the Laces Basketball Club in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league. She photographed days off on South Beach and playing golf with her Dream teammates Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard. She also got the opportunity to combine her two loves, photographing an Unrivaled game between Mist BC and Vinyl BC on January 25.

Hillmon says she had fun—and was challenged—experiencing the game as a photographer. “I was telling [the other photographers], I’m like, ‘I don’t know how you watch this,’” she says with a laugh. “I’m just running around with my camera trying to take the best picture. I don’t even know who’s winning.” (For the record, the Mist won this game, 76-71, and then went on to win the championship a few weeks later.)

In typical athlete fashion, Hillmon is already reflecting on what she can do better the next time she’s on the sidelines—she wants to take more shots of the bench, and capture more reactions and celebrations. ”There’s so much happening during the game,” she says. As a player, she can break things down easily on the court, but she’s still getting used to a photographer’s widened perspective. “When things slow down for me on that side, I think I’ll be able to really have an eye for what’s going on.”

For someone who first picked up a camera as a way to step away from basketball, it was a full-circle moment bringing her job and her hobby into the same frame. “Things move very, very quickly in the sports world. It’s easy to get caught up in tomorrow’s game and next week’s practice,” she says. “Photography gives me an opportunity to be present.”

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