Rev. David Tinney

I got my first camera when I was 8 years old for $1 and four box tops from Kix cereal. My folks saw that I had a gift for shooting pictures and when the Kix camera died they bought me a twin-lens Super Richoflex. I carried that camera everywhere and had my first picture published in the Pittsburgh Press when I was in high school.

It was about the same time that I experienced a profound call to go into ministry and when I went to college I chose a pre-ministerial major. But this was in the late 1960s and it seemed like none of the other pre-min majors were concerned about the ethics of the Vietnam War and racial injustice so I turned my back on my call and became a photojournalist.

Being a news photographer was exciting, creative, challenging but also heart breaking as shot pictures of people enduring terrible tragedies. The old call to be in ministry kept pulling me to the other side of the camera where I could care and comfort people rather than shooting their pictures.

After more than two decades of working for newspapers, I dropped everything and went to seminary and became a United Methodist minister in the state of Washington. I used my photography in my sermons and in creation of daily reflections. By the end of two decades of preaching and teaching, I retired, which only lasted three months as I started working as an associate chaplain in our local hospital.

I had more time to shoot pictures and to find ways of using photography to awaken people’s spirituality in ways they had never experienced before. This gave rise to the book that we just published. This book combines the lessons from three different careers with my ever-present desire to share our Creator’s love with others. Grace Happens!