London photographer on his latest stunning images of wild Lake Erie waves

Most people don’t like to go to the beach when it’s below freezing, and wind gusts are 75 kilometres per hour. But Dave Sandford is not most people.

Photo courtesy Dave Sandford

Most people don’t like to go to the beach when it’s below freezing, and wind gusts are 75 kilometres per hour.

But Dave Sandford is not most people.

Sporting his hip waders on a brisk winter day, the 48-year-old digs his feet into the edge of the Port Stanley shoreline and readies his camera gear.

The waves come and go from various directions. “It’s like a washing machine,” Sandford says, describing the scene. “You get the waves that are refracting off that pier and coming back out in directions to waves being pushed in by the wind.”

There’s a constant, pounding sound in the air. “It’s like a freight train, constantly on the go,” he said.

In the several hours that he spends photographing Lake Erie — whether in the water or from the shore — it’s not uncommon to come across massive waves. It is, however, rare to find those nearing 20 feet.

But on a December day, with conditions akin to those described above, Sandford photographed what he describes as “standing water” — a towering 20-foot wave captured in the tiniest fraction of a second.

It was a moment of “absolute awe,” he said. “You look at that picture, and to me, it’s defying the laws of gravity, practically.”

Here is a collection of Sandford’s latest Lake Erie photos, part of an ongoing series called Liquid Mountains, and his description of each one:

“It’s such a unique-looking wave where it’s not curling over. It’s being held up by the wind. If you use your imagination a little bit, you can find a couple of little faces in the face of the wave here. It just adds to that uniqueness. Waves may look similar but each one is uniquely different.” (Photo taken Dec. 11.)

“It’s kind of dark and moody, and gnarly looking. If I use my imagination a little bit, I can see a face in that wave, almost like two eyes in the top, the nose and a frowning mouth and wild hair flying in the wind. What I like about it, as well, is that moment before the entire wave gets blown out. You can see this one starting to bend in the wind before it does get blown out.” (Photo taken Dec. 11.)

“It reminds me of a bomb going off because of the shape, where you get that mushroom-cloud look and feel. That’s exactly what I think of when I watch these unfold. It’s like watching a bomb go off, and that’s really what drew me to this one. I’ve seen a lot of these, but this is the first that I really gravitated to. When (waves) explode like this, it’s just a big mess of whitewater, whereas this one still has some really nice shape and there’s depth. There’s a lot of sand being thrown around, so it really adds to the texture. It’s one of these ones that I like to say, you can almost feel it.” (Photo taken Jan. 5.)

“It’s hard for people to tell but this was a massive wave; one of the bigger ones that I’ve seen. There’s a really nice flow to this image that you don’t get in every single image. Your eye just kind of moves through it nicely. I also see an abstract face dead centre. The setting sun gives it life. With this being close to sunset on a cloudy day, you get that nice blue-ish tint to the whitewater.” (Photo taken Dec. 6)

Q: This series is called Liquid Mountains. What’s the inspiration behind the name?

“It came from my good friend Warren (Keelan), an ocean photographer based in Australia. I met him (roughly seven years ago) through Instagram. I wanted to learn where to go to shoot and get some pointers because I didn’t grow up around the ocean. He taught me about shooting in the water. So, when I started shooting this, after producing a few of the images, he called me up one time and said, ‘they look like liquid mountains.’ I was like: ‘That’s brilliant!’”

Q: You said you primarily shoot nature and wildlife now. When did you make that switch?

“I still do sports photography and still work for the National Hockey League , but it’s changed drastically over the years. I’m fortunate I’ve had a very successful career in pro sports photography but the draw for nature and wildlife has always been there and it just got more powerful as time went on. It was really the series in 2015 that broke opened the doors for me in nature and wildlife and really started to give me opportunities for this side of my career.”

Q: What are the weather conditions when shooting photos these photos? Do you plan ahead or spontaneously decide to go photograph?

“I’m a bit of a weather junkie, so that’s very helpful for what I do. I’m always looking at two factors, what the weather is doing and specifically, the wind. From late September through until around this time of the year, I am constantly looking at (my wind app) because (wind is) what generates the waves. I’m typically looking for sustained winds 50 km/h and higher. Ideally, I like having conditions where you get those dark, menacing storm clouds, but not just a big flat, overcast sky. When you get those kinds of cool clouds that kind of hold precipitation and there are holes in the clouds where you get the light that shines. That’s my favourite because it really makes those waves pop.”

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of sharing photos like these with the world? 

“At the beginning of this series, I think the most rewarding factor was its uniqueness. I was told by so many people, whether reporters, people I meet in the street, or on social media, it was the uniqueness. And to think now, I can say back in 2015 that in this day and age and in this moment of time, I was able to go out there and capture something that the world hasn’t seen before.”

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

twitter.com/CalviatLFPress

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada

TO FIND DAVE SANDFORD PHOTOS:

Website: davesandfordphotos.com

Instagram: davesandford

Museum London: shop.museumlondon.ca/collections/dave-sandford