Kate Upton. Photo by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

“That’s true,” Walter told me by email. “It was our 2nd shot at a beach named Narrabeen, north of Sydney. She was on a boardwalk, and I was below ground level when we shot her, in a suit that almost doesn’t exist. The first shot we did that day is the opener to the Oz story, with  her sitting on the boardwalk. It was probably the best afternoon of the trip. She is a star.”

The 2012 Swimsuit Issue has already got some big-name fans. Here’s a clip of David Letterman‘s “Top 10 Reasons This Year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Is the Best One Ever” from his show Monday night:

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Click on the screenshot below to view a gallery of Walter’s photos of Kate at SI.com. There are 50 images in all…

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Click above to view gallery.

A still from of a giant billboard of the cover being revealed in New York, as seen on "The Late Show."

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And to watch a behind-the-scenes video of their shoots, click on the image below:

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Click image to go behind the scenes.

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Photo by Michael Muller. Click to see more.

Photos by Lauren Greenfield. Click to see more.

Photo by Jim Fiscus. Click to see more.

Photo by Kai-Uwe Gundlach. Click to see more.

Photos by Kwaku Alston.

Photo by Tom Rafalovich. Click to see more.

Photos by Art Streiber. Click to see more.

Photos by Liz Von Hoene. Click to see more.

Photo by John Offenbach. Click to see more.

Photo by Martin Sigal. Click to see more.

Photo by David Drebin. Click to see more.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber. Click to see more.

Photo by Matthias Clamer. Click to see more.

Photo by Nino Munoz.

Photo by Jeff Lipsky. Click to see more.

Portrait by Matthew Rolston.

Photo by Roxanne Lowit. Click to see more.

Photo by Nadav Kander. Click to see more.

Photo by Walter Iooss. Click to see more.

Photo by Luca Zordan. Click to see more.

Photo by Hans Gissinger. Click to see more.

Photo by John Midgley. Click to see more.

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On a dreary, rain-soaked Manhattan day near the end of a loooong winter, one’s mind drifts to thoughts of tropical climates where the sun is constant and there’s not a shred of wool to be found. Places like you see in the current Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the cover of which was shot not by the usual suspect—veteran Swimsuit Issue photographer Walter Iooss—but by his son Bjorn Iooss. The model: Irina Shayk.

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Irina Shayk, as photographed by Bjorn Iooss.

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Bjorn Iooss and Walter Iooss.

As Bjorn explained to The New York Times last month, landing the cover was the furthest thing from his mind when he photographed Shayk in Maui, as he’d been commissioned to shoot “a few supplemental pictures” for a Swimsuit Issue advertorial. But there he was at dawn one day last November, photographing the Russian supermodel, and something just, you know, clicked.

“It was beautiful. The light had just come up,” Bjorn told the Times‘ Stephen Heyman, who writes that “a few frames in,” Bjorn and his editors knew they had a cover contender. “The crazy thing about it,” noted Bjorn, who also photographed Julie Henderson, “was that it was the first morning, the first girl, the first look, and it was perfect.”

Bjorn’s dad, I mean Walter, also contributed to this year’s Swimsuit Issue, photographing Alyssa Miller, Genevieve Morton, and Anne V in Fuji. Here’s a look:

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Alyssa Miller. Photo by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated. Click to see more.

Genevieve Morton. Photo by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated. Click to see more.

Anne V. Photo by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated. Click to see more.

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Last year, when Walter’s Swimsuit Issue–inspired book Heaven came out, Vanity Fair produced a video and slideshow in which Walter hosts a look back at his Swimsuit shots from over the past three decades. He talks about his photos of models such as Cheryl Tiegs, Veronika Varecova, Petra Nemcova, Tyra Banks, Marisa Miller (“She does have the greatest body of any girl I’ve ever seen,” he comments), Paulina Porizkova, and Christie Brinkley.

The Swimsuit shoots are not “the orgy” that people think they are, Walter notes drily at one point, adding, “People look at you like, Who’s this ass with the hot girls?”

Click here to watch the slideshow “The Luckiest Photographer on Earth” at vanityfair.com and here to watch the video.

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Walter’s been shooting for Sports Illustrated for 47 years—he had his first assignment for the magazine when he was just 16. It’s pretty incredible, when you think about it. Now there’s a book that surveys his photographs for SI‘s famed Swimsuit Issue, to which he has contributed 23 times. Heaven is a 256-page collection of 200-plus images that Walter selected from his personal archives, arranged by his 16 favorite locations and featuring behind-the-scenes and previously unpublished photos.

“It was a lot harder to put this book together than I ever thought it would be,” Walter told me by phone from his home in Montauk. “My preceding book, Athlete, had no chapters, but the straight flow of the photos in that book didn’t work for this book. So we tried to organize it by the girls, but that didn’t work either. SI’s managing editor, Terry McDonnell, was the man who really structured this book. He defined it by locations.”

“Walter defined the sexiness of SI Swimsuit,” McDonell said in a press statement. “No one else could create a book like his appropriately titled Heaven.”

The New York Post is showcasing a gallery of Heaven-ly images:

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Click on the image to access the gallery.

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And VanityFair.com has done a video interview with Walter that’s a sort of guided tour of Heaven. “Flipping through the book’s pages with VF.com,” the video’s producer, Erica Singleton, writes, “he reveals which model had the best body, which one showed up wearing an obscene T-shirt and a rubber boa constrictor, and why one of his most famous shots—of Cheryl Tiegs in 1977—could not have been published today.” Click on the image below to take a look.

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Photo by Walter Iooss.

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There is a veritable bonanza of his photos, plus some video, at SI.com—including these…

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Brooklyn Decker, photographed by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

Brooklyn Decker, photographed by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

Brooklyn Decker, photographed by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

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.“Walter brings out this very fun, athletic side of me,” Decker tells SI.com.

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Brooklyn Decker, photographed by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

Brooklyn Decker, photographed by Walter Iooss for Sports Illustrated.

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There’s also a video of Walter on set—if you can call the beach a set. It’s a chance to admire the venerable sports photographer’s own choice of swimsuit…

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A still from "Walter Iooss: Maldives."

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A still from "Walter Iooss: Maldives."

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