(dramatic music)
(waves crashing)
- [Narrator] When you think of the Great Lakes,
you may not expect this.
These photographs of magnificent towering waves
weren't taken in the Pacific or the Atlantic.
They were taken at Lake Erie.
- The thing that I find amazes a lot of people
that are familiar with them is the sheer size of them.
I've been with lots of people that, for the first time
when they're seeing them, they're like,
"Really, this isn't an ocean?"
- [Narrator] Dave Sandford is a professional photographer
from Ontario, Canada.
To do his work, Sandford waits for the perfect
weather conditions, heading out into fierce winds
and ice cold water to make his masterpieces.
(waves crashing)
(upbeat music)
- Lake Erie is in the most southern part of Ontario.
It's the smallest of the Great Lakes.
As far as the depth goes, it's the shallowest by far.
- Being a large lake, but relatively shallow
compared to the other Great Lakes,
creates unique wave conditions.
The waves on Lake Erie tend to be closer together
with a lot more of the violence on the white water on top.
- There's a lot of people that have
lost their lives on Lake Erie.
There's been estimated somewhere over 8,000 shipwrecks
on Lake Erie over the years.
- At her worst, Lake Erie can be murderous.
In fact when she's murderous, we call her a widow maker.
- To be a nature photographer, I think that one
of the number one things you have to have is patience.
The first wave photo that I posted from Lake Erie
I came home that night and I posted an image
and right away the number of comments on it,
it was crazy compared to what I normally would get,
and the number of ‘likes.’ (laughs)
If I know I'm going in the water, it starts from like
the moment I wake up in the morning.
There's a lot of mental preparation.
There is an adrenaline rush too, for sure.
Like I've no idea how things are going to unfold.
It's before the sun's even coming up,
and you can see the water in the distance
and those waves exploding into the air,
and it's just such a cool rush.
The window of opportunity to photograph the lakes for me
is generally from maybe mid-October through early December.
It's the best time of the year when you still have
that warm air masses that are around this region
and then those cold air masses that are coming from up north
that give you these really prime conditions.
Obviously weather changes and it's constantly changing.
The biggest factor is wind speed and wind direction.
A southwest wind is the best, and minimal wind speeds
I'm usually looking at around 30 miles an hour
at the bare minimum.
At the high end of it, you're actually getting into
category one hurricane level winds over 70 miles an hour.
It's a crazy mass of water and that's when you're getting
these waves that are upwards of 30 feet.
The tough thing about lake waves is it's not
like ocean waves where you have sets that come in
and then there's a bit of a lull.
Lake waves are constantly pounding.
You know you virtually have like two seconds,
2 1/2 seconds, between each wave,
and where I'm at, it's more like a giant washing machine.
It's not easy.
You're kinda cold after a while too.
That water is only around the 50 degree mark.
There's days where there's ice in the water
and you're literally you're like, what am I doing? (laughs)
Water is very powerful, it's very deceiving,
and you have to have great respect for it.
You can get pulled under and pulled out with a rip current.
It's obviously a lot stronger than you are.
You have to know your limitations and know when to say when.
The waves that are generated from this refraction
off the pier, those are the waves that I'm photographing
where you have two masses of water, two waves,
that are moving in opposite directions that are meeting
and colliding and they actually, they’ll hit and they twist
and they turn and it's a phenomenal thing to see.
It's just building this massive liquid mountain
that literally lasts all of like a second, if that, you know.
Sometimes it's a fraction of a moment in time,
and that's one of the things that I love is the challenge
of capturing that moment.
- [Narrator] Dave Sandford's Liquid Mountain Photographs
have appeared in several online publications
including The Washington Post.
He also sells prints on his website.
- I guess one of the things that I really hope is
that my photos can allow people to appreciate
what they have as far as nature goes and learn to love it
and cherish it and embrace it and protect it.
(dramatic music)