Just a shirtless guy standing in a frozen Alice Lake surrounded by snow, holding an umbrella — with a curious dog wading in to greet him.
This is the image that popped up when curious staff at The Chief plugged “Squamish” into the search function in the stock photo site, Shutterstock.
A plethora of questions arose: Who was this man? What was he doing and why?
Also, under what circumstances would anyone needs such a stock photo?
After posting the photo to our social media accounts, we located the man!
Edgar Bullon, who lives in Surrey, is a professional photographer and the man in the interesting photo.
He was doing a shoot with a friend and the dogs she was housesitting at Alice Lake this winter. After the shoot, he decided to take a dip in the icy water. Wading into frozen water is something he does often. He practices the Wim Hof Method, the idea that being in the cold causes feel-good chemicals in the brain that naturally elevate mood.
“You train your body to get used to cold water,” he explained. “In the wintertime, that is what I like to do.”
When he was coming back to shore at Alice Lake, his friend turned the camera on Bullon and got the shot, and a few others. The umbrella was just a fun add-on, he said.
The dog in the photo was watching from the shore, looking concerned for Bullon and then waded out, but wouldn’t go in past his torso, Bullon said, with a laugh.
As a photographer, he submits his photos onto the photo-sharing website and that is how it ended up as a Squamish-related choice.
Bullon comes to Squamish to windsurf too.
“It is one of the places I would like to live in,” he said of the district.
Bullon said it was funny to see the chatter about his photo on The Chief’s Facebook site.
“I hope that cures your curiosity,” he said.
We still don't know who would need such a photo, but we are glad we got to know the man behind it.
