Biography
Armed with a Bachelor of Science (geology) from the University of Leicester, England, and an Environmental Science Diploma (Parks and Recreation) from Lakeland Community College, Alberta, Hilary embarked on her career as interpretive naturalist at Dinosaur Provincial Park in the spring of 1995. The natural beauty of the park inspired a seminal photographic journey. A serious amateur photographer for the past 15 years, Hilary set out to attempt to document on film the nature of this unique landscape with its plant and animal life.

So far Hilary's photographs have been published in several magazines, the park's newspaper: the DPP TIMES, a booklet about the park, two calendars and several postcards. A nine-minute slide and music programme featuring her slides from the park won First Place in a 2001 national visual image competition.

Her interest in nature photography blossomed when she emigrated from England to Canada in the 1970's and discovered a whole new world of flora and fauna. She began capturing wildflowers on film as a way of teaching herself identification and local flower lore. Hilary has organized and conducted several photo workshops in diverse locales such as Yellowstone National Park, the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Iceland, southern Arizona and of course, Dinosaur Provincial Park.

After seven summers at Dinosaur Provincial Park Hilary has now moved on to a new position within Alberta's parks and protected areas network and her photographs continue to record her adventures throughout the province.

Photo Tips
After over 20 years of making learning through the old school of 'trial and error' I can offer some advice to fellow photographers that will make your visit to Dinosaur Provincial Park a "photo safari" that will leave you with unforgettable images of this fascinating landscape and its residents.

1. ON TIME OF DAY ...
The rocks at Dinosaur Provincial Park are rather grey in normal sunlight. They take on colours ranging from yellow through orange, red and even purple in the dawn and sunset light. Dawn in June and July is very early, (5:12 a.m. on the June 21 solstice) so expect to be up with the birds! From late August into the autumn sunrise is at a much more civilized hour, around 6:30 a.m. Sunset on the solstice is at 9:43 p.m. and by mid-August sunset comes around 8:45 p.m. with dusk arriving one or two minutes earlier each day.

When shooting at sunset some dramatic images of sky with foreground hoodoos as silhouettes can be made after the sun has set.

For sunrise and sunset, very long exposures may be necessary in order to get the whole image sharp and in focus. I always use a tripod and cable release to achieve sharp images.

2. ON FILTERS ...
Many folks like to use a variety of filters to enhance their images. The most useful filters in the park are a polarizer; a warming filter; and a split neutral density filter.

A polarizer cuts reflection that causes glare on vegetation, darkens blue skies and saturates colours. Skies that are over polarized, however, look unnaturally dark. So the filter should be used with care, backing away from maximum polarization.

If your camera has auto-focus you must use a circular polarizer or the auto-focus function will operate incorrectly. If you are using wide-angle lenses, wider than 35 mm, check to make sure that the polarizer does not cause vignetting (dark shadows at the corners of the images). Thin polarizers overcome this problem. Some polarizers now incorporate a warming filter (see below).

A warming filter (often called an 81A, 81B or 81C) will prevent the blue caste seen on images taken in the shade or shadow. 81A has the least effect and 81C is the strongest of the three filters. An 81B is a good first filter to buy in this series.

Split neutral density filters are used when the scene has very strong contrast between, for example, land and sky. If the sky is very bright this type of filter can be used to darken the sky so that the exposure is closer to that of the land. At sunset this would give more ground detail.

Cokin makes rectangular graduated grey filters that do the job quite adequately. Round filters of this type are not nearly as useful as rectangular ones because one cannot move the dark horizon up and down to place it in the right part of the image.

Filters that add colour to the landscape, such as enhancing and sunset filters tend to make for a very artificial looking image. The rocks at the park can have a dramatic colour from low light; there is no need to fake it.

3. ON FLOWERING TIMES ...
One of the most asked questions at the park is "When do the cactus bloom?" My answer is: anytime from May 30th to about June 20th. Three factors determine most flowering schedules: photo period (that is, the available light), temperature and moisture availability. The first is obviously predetermined by sunset-sunrise times, while the other two can be quite variable from year to year. Good blooming years are usually wetter than the not so good years. I have noticed that in very dry years, such as 2001, the cacti wait until mid-June to flower. While Prickly pear cactus blooms can be seen throughout the cactus flowering season, the bright magenta flowers of the Ball cactus (also know by its more descriptive name: Pin-cushion cactus) can usually be seen after 10 or 11 a.m. on sunny days. Then most of the ball cactus plants flower at once, with each flower open for only one day. A good place to find Pincushions is in the south end of the campground loop on the west side of Little Sandhill Creek. Look for them below the sandstone cliffs that rise up behind the 'ramada' shade shelters.

4. ON TRIPODS ...
A tripod should be sturdy and a maximum height so that you are not hunched over to look through the camera viewfinder. The use of a centre post to raise the tripod head is not advised since this practise essentially turns a tripod into an unstable monopod. Flower and close-up photography may demand a tripod that has legs that spread out almost horizontally.

Many less expensive tripods come with a three-way pan head. These heads are rather cumbersome and are not very versatile. A reasonably large ball head allows almost infinite adjustment with quick action. Many ball heads have a quick release plate. If this plate is too small, heavier cameras often twist on the plate, which can be most disconcerting.

Getting used to a good tripod can take some time, however, the greater number of good, usable images should make it worthwhile.

5. ON LENSES ...
Some photographers will say that only prime lenses (single focal length) give good images. With the advances in technology most zoom lenses are now of good quality. My most useful are 28-85 mm and 80-200 mm. I look for lenses that let in plenty of light for focussing. Lenses slower that f5.6 are very dark and cannot be used with converters if you are using an auto-focus camera. Ideally, if you have won the lottery, all your lenses would be f2.8, but these can very expensive.

For bird photography the ideal lens has a focal length of 600 mm. Most folks like make do with a 300 mm lens and a 2X converter. Birds can be very approachable at the park so good images are possible with a set-up like mine.

Flower photography often necessitates getting close. There are several ways to do this:

The cheapest way is to use a good quality screw on close-up lens or filter on a short telephoto lens. If close-up shooting becomes a passion then a macro lens is a must. The most useful focal length is from 90 to 105 mm.; any shorter and you have to put the lens extremely close to the subject, not always advisable for small animals or cacti! An extension tube (a hollow tube with no glass) allows long lenses to get much closer to a subject. I often use a 300 mm lens with an extension tube to get butterfly images.

I also have a cheap 17-28 mm zoom lens that distorts horizons horribly but allows me to capture complete rainbows and huge skies. It is also fun for making shots that fool the eye when there is nothing to hint at the scale of an object. For instance, a tiny hoodoo can look huge if photograph from very close to the ground with the sky behind it.

6. ON GREAT LANDSCAPES ...
The complexity of the badlands formations of Dinosaur Park can be admired from the entrance viewpoint. The immense depth of the scene cannot be truly appreciated unless there are clouds (fair weather cumulus) casting shadows over parts of it. Evening and early morning light colours the rocks and dramatic lighting is often associated with rainstorms.

Landscapes at the park can range from being wide and sweeping to close, with very intricate erosion patterns. With good lighting a mini-scape can fool the eye and result in very pleasing image.

After a rainstorm the colours of the rocks are quite different. The mudstones take on a yellowish-green hue. Also after a rain there is often a great deal of water flowing. Dramatic waterfalls can be photographed within the Public Loop Road perimeter, not very far from the road itself. A good one is just north of the road at the first steep hill after the "cave" parking area and about 100 metres past the hoodoo known as "the Enterprise" (named after the star-ship from original Star Trek TV series).

7. ON WILDLIFE VIEWING ...
The park contains three distinct habitats: prairie grasslands above the valley rim, and badlands and riparian (riverbank) communities below the break of slope. Some animals are unique to only one life zone, while others can be observed in all three settings.

The most commonly seen mammals are the mule deer and Nuttal's cottontail rabbits. They are not by any means tame but they are habituated to human presence. Does with fawns can be dangerous, so please respect their need for space. A word about fawns . . . the mothers often leave their young hidden in the vegetation when they are very young. Please do not approach too closely, they are not abandoned! Other mammals seen and heard are beaver, coyotes, hares, porcupines, and white-tailed deer. On very rare occasions, sightings of moose, elk (wapiti) and bobcat have been reported.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a birdwatcher's heaven. Migrating warblers pass through in the spring and fall. Raptors such as golden eagles, prairie falcons, kestrels, great-horned and short-eared owls, are known to nest in the park. Ferruginous hawks have not been reported as a nesting species for many years. A northern saw-whet owl nested successfully in the campground in 2000.

Birds often found nesting in the cottonwood groves in the campground include house wrens, Baltimore orioles, least flycatchers, eastern kingbirds, starlings, robins, yellow warblers, kestrels and northern flickers. Mountain bluebirds, Say's phoebes, rock wrens, and common nighthawks all nest in the badlands coulees. Western meadowlarks are very common and nest in the grasslands above the valley along with mourning doves and several species of sparrow and blackbirds.

Keep an eye out for white pelicans feeding on the Red Deer River, possibly on a day visit from their usual haunt on Lake Newell about 65 km to the southwest. You may also spy a great blue heron on the shoreline; they are very timid and no longer nest at the rookery in the park. Belted kingfishers are sometimes seen along the riverbank, trying their luck in the muddy waters full of sediment from the badlands upstream.

8. ON TREADING LIGHTLY …
Dinosaur Provincial Park is a very fragile environment. The activities of nearly 90,000 visitors a year can do a tremendous amount of damage to the soil and plant life trying to survive in the challenging habitat found here. Look up into the hills just west of the campground and within the Public Loop Road perimeter area and the effect is very obvious.

Several wildflowers that are on the Alberta rare plant list grow in the park, and some are locally abundant in certain areas. Three species that we are particularly concerned about grow in sandy soil within the Facility Core Area of the park. They are: umbrellawort, small lupine and nodding umbrella plant. The first two have pictures in the excellent reference guide "Wildflowers across the Prairies". I have not been able to locate any guide with an illustration of the last plant. Please be extra careful if you want to shoot these species "at risk".

Please do your part as a responsible photographer and minimize your impact on the park's environment.

Finally, good luck and I wish you many enjoyable hours capturing the countless images Dinosaur Provincial Park, a truly magical place on this planet.