‘Blown away:’ Ingersoll, Ontario photographer captures more than just a storm in ‘perfect’ shot

Most people avoid the beach on stormy days. Not Cody Evans.

A photographer from Ingersoll, Ontario, regularly travels to Lake Erie on a mission to capture the perfect shot. And last Friday was his lucky day.

Of the 10,000+ photos he took, one looked like a face.

Evans said he thinks it resembles the face of Poseidon, the ancient Greek god of the sea and storms.

“I was kind of overwhelmed,” he said. “You see a lot of that stuff in waves and clouds, but it wasn’t realistic to articulate like that. That picture certainly stood out from all the others.”

Since 2020, Evans has been using a Nikon Z9 camera to capture the action of the waves in the lake, an image he didn’t expect to see, he said.

“It was really crazy. It was like the perfect day. I’ve been going there for three years trying to get a good shot, and it was the best day,” Evans said.

So what was the component in the air that caused this phenomenon?

strong winds and strengthened waves

The short answer, according to environmental Canadian meteorologist Daniel Riota, is ‘November Gale’, a gale in the ocean exceeding 64 kilometers per hour.

“The lakes at this time of year are relatively warm compared to the skies above, especially with the cold air masses that entered the Great Lakes last weekend,” Riota said. .”

Storms are especially common in the fall and winter, Liota said. In this case, southwesterly winds traveled long distances over the lake, creating waves on the surface, he added.

Evans admits that windy days can be difficult to spend on the beach, especially with the cold weather and bursts of sand, but he made sure to wait until the snow fell to see the waves crash.

“The waves were breaking pretty well because the jetty pushes the water back into the lake. When the water pushes back, the waves collide and cause those peaks,” he said.

This was due to the extreme cold air that passed behind the cold front in the Great Lakes region, creating instability and causing lake-effect snow.

“There’s usually an active storm track through the lakes at this time of year, especially with the impact of these stronger systems bringing in cold air masses,” Riota said.

“So it creates strong instability over the water, which results in strong winds lasting longer, gusting winds over large lakes, and strong winds.”

Liota says there’s not much peculiarity behind this kind of wave, it happens every year.

But Evans is determined to continue his streak of catching more of these stills at Port Stanley. “Honestly, I’ve been holding my camera until I can’t hold it anymore. I love it,” he said.