Most individuals don’t prefer to go to the seaside when it’s under freezing, and wind gusts are 75 kilometres per hour. However Dave Sandford shouldn't be most individuals.
Sporting his wetsuit on a brisk winter day, the 48-year-old straddles the Port Stanley shoreline and readies his digicam gear.
The waves come and go from numerous instructions. “It’s like a washer,” Sandford says, describing the scene. “You get the waves which are refracting off that pier and coming again out in instructions to waves being pushed in by the wind.”
There’s a relentless, pounding sound within the air. “It’s like a freight practice, consistently on the go,” he mentioned.
Within the a number of hours that he spends photographing the shoreline — whether or not within the water or on the pier — it’s not unusual to come back throughout large waves. It's, nonetheless, uncommon to seek out these nearing 20 ft.
However on a December day, with situations akin to these described above, Sandford photographed what he describes as “standing water” — a towering 20-foot wave captured within the tiniest fraction of a second.
It was a second of “absolute awe,” he mentioned. “You have a look at that image, and to me, it’s defying the legal guidelines of gravity, virtually.”
Q: This sequence known as Liquid Mountains. What’s the inspiration behind the identify?
“It got here from my good buddy Warren (Keelan), an ocean photographer primarily based in Australia. I met him (roughly seven years in the past) via Instagram. I wished to be taught the place to go to shoot and get some pointers as a result of I didn’t develop up across the ocean. He taught me about taking pictures within the water. So, once I began taking pictures this, after producing a number of of the photographs, he referred to as me up one time and mentioned, ‘they appear like liquid mountains.’ I used to be like: ‘That’s sensible!’”
Q: You mentioned you primarily shoot nature and wildlife now. When did you make that change?
“I nonetheless do sports activities images and nonetheless work for the Nationwide Hockey League, but it surely’s modified drastically through the years. I’m lucky I’ve had a really profitable profession in professional sports activities images however the draw for nature and wildlife has at all times been there and it simply acquired extra highly effective as time went on. It was actually the sequence in 2015 that broke opened the doorways for me in nature and wildlife and actually began to provide me alternatives for this aspect of my profession.”
Q: What are the climate situations when taking pictures pictures these pictures? Do you propose forward or spontaneously resolve to go photograph?
I’m a little bit of a climate junkie, in order that’s very useful for what I do. I’m at all times two elements, what the climate is doing and particularly, the wind. From late September via till round this time of the 12 months, I'm consistently (my wind app) as a result of (wind is) what generates the waves. I’m sometimes on the lookout for sustained winds 50 km/h and better. Ideally, I like having situations the place you get these darkish, menacing storm clouds, however not only a huge flat, overcast sky. Once you get these sorts of cool clouds that type of maintain precipitation and there are holes within the clouds the place you get the sunshine that shines. That’s my favorite as a result of it actually makes these waves pop.
Q: What’s probably the most rewarding a part of sharing pictures like these with the world?
At first of this sequence, I feel probably the most rewarding issue was its uniqueness. I used to be advised by so many individuals, whether or not reporters, folks I meet on the street, or on social media, it was the individuality. And to suppose now, I can say again in 2015 that nowadays and on this second of time, I used to be capable of go on the market and seize one thing that the world hasn’t seen earlier than.
Web site: davesandfordphotos.com
Instagram: davesandford
Museum London: store.museumlondon.ca/collections/dave-sandford