Christian Photographers Community

Hi BigSkyKen!

We're so glad to see you here at our special place on the internet!

We just want you to make yourself right at home.  We'd love to know more about you—your home, your camera, and what kind of photography you enjoy!  

So, BigSkyKen pull up a comfy chair and make yourself right at home here at

Thank you for the kind welcome, I am glad to have found the CPC!  We live in rural south central Montana, where my wife homeschools our two girls who are nearly finished with high school.  My wife and I teach Sunday School at our church, which is just a short jaunt of about 40 miles away.  Our daughters assist and counsel at a Christian youth camp during the summer.  Christ has been central to the upbringing of our children and the foundation of our marriage.

We have worked on ranches in various locations of Montana over the years, but made a career decision a few years back and purchased 20 acres of rock and timber to call home, while I work throughout the Pacific Northwest.  My wife and girls maintain a menagarie of animals, which are pretty well summarized on Alesia's website, http://www.heartstowardHim.com.  I have recently taken up photography as hobby, with a primary interest in capturing wildlife, nature and landscape images.  I've got a lot to learn, but having been having a blast along the way.  On thing I have learned is that no matter how great an image I create, it pales in comparison to His creation.

I am looking forward to meeting and sharing with all of you.

Kindest regards,
Ken

Hi Ken!

Great to have you.  Hope you drop by our "Thoughts for the Week" for this week as this is our 7th Anniversary week.

I'll get you a link:  http://www.christianphotographers.com/community/index.php?topic=9644.0

We're certainly looking forward to seeing your photos.  You sure live in a beautiful state.

Thank you, Pat.  I followed you link and jumped into the Thoughts for the Week, and posted in the Wildlife/Bird forum to get my feet wet!

You have done well!   Welcome and we are looking forward to getting to know you better.

That's good, Ken!

Looking forward to getting to know you better in the coming days.

Welcome Ken to Christian Photographers!

Pat and I remarried almost 2 years ago as you may have seen in Pat's photos as we both were widowed a number of years ago. She lives here in Guelph Ontario, Canada and my home is in Winchester VA and we travel between both places these days.

I have a daughter and son in law in Bozeman MT and they run a small art gallery/store  in downtown Bozeman called the "Grey Fox". I was wondering if you ever get to Bozeman and how far away you are?
I've been out there a few times and the mountains are beautiful!

Here's a snapshot I took over 10 years ago -

Hello Paul.  I live about 2.5 hours away from Bozeman.  In the course of my normal work month, I generally either go to, or at least through Bozeman at least once.  We used to live there up until 1995, and believe we have even shopped at your daughter's gallery a time or two.

My it is a small world!

Hello again Ken,

Is the Billings area still called "Big Sky" country? I have a grand son that works at Big Sky ski area down from Bozeman.

I remember a few years back driving from Denver to Bozeman and I went thru Billings on the way. After Billings I remember setting the cruse control on 90 MPH and I don't think I had to adjust it very much 'till I got to Livingston. It only took a little over one hour from Billings to Bozeman, but mind you that was when there was no speed limit on INT 90 at that time. I thought 90 was maybe the speed limit (I was driving a rental car as I don't drive mine that fast). I understand things have changed a bit since then, no? I remember seeing the "Crazy Mountain Range" from I 90 and they looked really interesting.

I took a few pictures with my point and shoot camera when I visited Yellowstone or is that Jellystone National Park. It's beautiful country out there and I was wondering what kind of camera you are using. The pictures you posted are really nice - I especially liked the bald eagle.

Hi Paul.  All of Montana is referred to as "Big Sky Country", so yes, even us out here in fly-over country qualify!  I miss the days fo our "reasonable and prudent" speed limit law, but all things change.  The Crazy Mountains you referred to happen to be one of my favorite mountain ranges in the state.  Their unique, rugged features really set them apart from others, and because they seemingly sprout out of nowhere they are a landmark that can be seen from a long ways away.  We currently live in the Bull Mountains, which are far to the east of the Crazy Mtns, but if the weather is fairly clear, we can see the Crazies from here.  I was working with some customers near Martinsdale, MT today, which is on the north end of the Crazy Mtns, and the weather was fierce!  60 mph wind, blowing snow and soil from the freshily worked fields made to a dust storm that virtually had me stopped on the highway due to zero visibility!  I'm glad to be back home tonight where the wind is down to a mild 30-40 mph!

I am a Canon user, and relied on an XSi up until recently.  Now it is playing back up to my 7D (which I am still learning how to use properly!).  Recently I picked up some higher quality glass, but haven't had much chance to really try it out.  Stay tuned and we'll see if I can do anything with it!

Smokey says "Woof!" and welcome from Michigan.

Hi, Ken.

Love Montana. You're so fortunate to live there, although winters must be rough.

I'm new around here, too. Glad to see you here.....and looking forward to seeing your work.

Ohhhh do I remember the Wyoming winters!  Montana must be equally as unpredictable!... One trip through we saw smoke on the top of a mountain....thought it was a fire.  we carried on and around the next bend there was a helicopter dumping water on the fire.   Again I didn't have the camera handy.

Hello Smokey & Connie. I am glad to make your acquaintance. Connie, you and Judy made mention our our winter weather, in fact they generally aren't that tough. Sure, we might get 2-3 weeks of tough and ugly, but we make it out to be much worse than reality to keep more people from moving here!  Because of our relatively low humidity, I doubt our winter weathe is nearly as miserable as Smokey's winters. Granted, our weather is hard to predict, but if you don't like the weather all you have to do is wait 5 minutes, because it changes rapidly!