Wednesday, January 14, 2015
B1
Winter Waiting
Cold, yet keen for a
new aviary perspective
It’s a brisk 30 degrees outside,
but the sun is shining. I need all
of the available light when pho-
tographing eagles. It’s that time
of year where somewhere
around 165 eagles winter over in
the Columbia River Gorge, the
Klickitat River and Glenwood.
Long johns — check
Insulated boots — check
Sweater — check
Insulated coveralls — check
Fingerless gloves — check
Warm hat — check
Spare camera batteries —
check
Tripod — check
Long lens — check
Backup camera body — check
Gasoline in the car — check
Eyeglasses — check
■
Now I’m out the door in search
of those birds as I found out that
blue heron hang out, too.
I usually head to the Balfour
Park, just west of the Klickitat
River off of Highway 14. The ea-
gles hang out there, on the sand
bar or just up in the air depend-
ing on the wind. I personally like
shooting even elevation with the
birds or down at them. And when
they are flying, they will be back-
lit.
Otherwise, I like the sun shin-
ing on them and different angles
of perspective, not them just sit-
ting on the branches in the trees.
There are times that they may sit
for two to three hours without
doing anything and I am there
waiting … waiting ... waiting …
waiting!
You need a very long lens.
Even my 600/f4 with a 1.4 tele-
converter is not long enough at
times. I used manual focus most
of the time.
When there is not enough sun-
light and it is still cold, I concen-
trate on micro images of the
frozen water. Noticing what is
“deeper” within a “general
scene” and play with the focus.
Stephen Datnoff is a profes-
sional photographer living in
Hood River.
GRACE frozen and in flight: blue heron, and mature (top photo) and immature bald eagles, below and formations in ice,
at right and in background, captured by Stephen Datnoff.
Photos and text by STEPHEN DATNOFF
Calling on Cuba
M.D. Van Valkenburgh, who toured in 1997, praises
move to normalize relations with long-isolated nation
By MARK GIBSON
The Dalles Chronicle
Mark B. Gibson photo
M.D. VAN VALKENBURGH sits with a poster from Cuba, where he visited in 1997. He is glad to see
relations changing for the better between America and Cuba, which is the same distance from the
Florida coast as The Dalles is from Portland.
On a lark some years ago,
The Dalles attorney M.D.
Van Valkenburgh went to
Cuba.
It was around 1997, and
he’d just finished attending a
tax conference in Miami, and
some buddies were headed to
Cuba in the comfort of a
roomy 60-foot boat.
He joined them for the ad-
venture, and found a country
much like the photographs
depict: A time warp where
cars and amenities date from
the 1950s.
Van Valkenburgh, who is
board chair of the Columbia
Gorge Community College
district, agreed to an inter-
view about his trip in light of
President Barack Obama’s
surprise announcement Dec.
17 that the United States was
normalizing diplomatic rela-
tions with Cuba, reversing a
longstanding freeze that
dates back to January 1961.
Van Valkenburgh said he
was surprised “in a way” by
the president’s decision,
which also includes a partial
lifting of the trade and travel
embargo to the communist
nation, but added, “I always
felt it was inevitable. We
couldn’t be stupid forever.”
“The rest of the world
trades with them and we’re
90 miles away and theoreti-
cally we can’t trade with
them. It’s nonsense,” he said.
Not only will a U.S. em-
bassy reopen in Havana, but
other changes will make cer-
tain categories of travel easi-
er, allow more money to be
sent to Cubans, provide tele-
com infrastructure and ease
banking restrictions.
Please see CUBA, Page B3