Dale Vanderheyden (Photo by Jay Paul)
Dale Vanderheyden pulls her white Kia Sorrento into the parking lot at Pocahontas State Park and tells her companion, “Glad to see you brought good walking shoes.” To capture the images of Virginia’s birds that have earned her legions of fans on social media, Vanderheyden estimates she walks at least 5 miles a day or more.
She jumps out of the car, and from the back of the vehicle she pulls out her bag of photography equipment. Her camera of choice is a Nikon D500. She explains that “I usually use a Nikon 500 f/5.6 pf lens, but on larger birds I use a Nikon 80-400mm zoom lens.” Barely 5-foot-2, with intense green eyes, she says she appreciates the fact that the bigger lens has a handle that helps her steady it. In addition to the camera equipment, she carries her phone, a drink and a small stool to sit on if it gets very hot. She says she likes to find a spot in the shade and take pictures of hummingbirds and other small birds.
She got into bird photography about three years ago when her life partner, Bill Pahnelas, gave her her first camera. “He could tell I needed a creative outlet,” she says, after arthritis in her hands put an end to her colorfully detailed and delicate embroidery work.
Photographing birds satisfies Vanderheyden’s love of colorful detail and gives her a great physical and spiritual outlet. She recently turned 63, having retired from her job as a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Treasury Department. When she first got started, she says she didn’t know a “bluebird from a blue jay.”
The secret to being able to spot the birds and get the shots she does? “Simple,” she says. “Patience. Good ears. Good eyes. The ability to be quiet for long stretches of time.
“Plus, don’t let the bugs bother you,” she adds. She uses peppermint oil as a natural bug repellent and only uses the chemical sprays if she thinks it will be really buggy.
Vanderheyden says she has been out walking and photographing “every day for the past three years unless it has been raining.” She prefers not to reveal details of her favorite shooting spots beyond a generic location description out of “respect for the birds themselves. They don’t need a lot of people invading their habitats.”
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Goldfinch (Photo courtesy Dale Vanderheyden)
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Eastern screech owl (Photo courtesy Dale Vanderheyden)
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Great blue heron (Photo courtesy Dale Vanderheyden)
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Hummingbird (Photo courtesy Dale Vanderheyden)
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Bald eagle (Photo courtesy Dale Vanderheyden)
Her photography has earned her a following on Facebook and Instagram. Raised by a federal judge and a stay-at-home-mom in Northern Virginia, she is Old World mannerly and thanks the giver of every compliment she receives. Shy and self-effacing, she treasures all accolades, especially those that come from the best professional photographers in the area. Preferring not to namedrop, she says simply, “they know who they are.”
You can find her art photography for sale on fineartamerica.com, but Vanderheyden says she isn’t trying to monetize doing what she clearly loves to do. “I love the birds, and I care what happens to them,” she says.
She stresses that she is not an ornithologist or a climatologist, but an artist. Still, her work has created in her an appreciation and a concern for the well-being of the birds she photographs and the ones she doesn’t.
“You don’t have to be a scientist to see that climate change is real,” she says, noting a significant decline in the number of birds that she and Pahnelas see on their forays into bird habitats. Quoting him, she says he is “absolutely right that birds are the proverbial canaries in the mineshaft,” and says they both hope that Virginia’s landmark environmental legislation passed during the last General Assembly session will make a difference.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act puts Virginia on the path to what conservationists say will be a 100% carbon-free electricity grid by 2045 and shutters the most polluting plants by 2030. The National Audubon Society hails the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) and Del. Richard “Rip” Sullivan (D-Arlington, Fairfax), as landmark legislation that will provide “a healthier environment for birds and people.”
Meanwhile, Vanderheyden says her bird photography is a spiritual quest and hopes to inspire others to “love and treasure these marvelous creatures.” Heading out of the park, she quotes ornithologist and artist John James Audubon: “I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could.”
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