Many of Jason's images capture the local beauty of his home in Huntington Beach, CA.

A few months back, Jason Tockey joined our Flickr group and started submitting these really inspiring images of sunsets off of the California coast… Of course, I didn’t know then that this self-taught, amateur photographer would be thoughtful, wise and personally inspiring as well…

Jason has developed a significant talent in photography in just over 2 years… Beginning in August 2008 with the camera on his phone, Jason was quickly hooked and began creating projects for himself… By January 2009, he picked up a Nikon DSLR and never looked back…

Picking up tips from friends on Flickr, other online resources and a few good books, Jason continues to explore different styles and creative artistry. He sometimes shoots 3 or 4 times in a week, taking an average of 150 images in each shoot… Then evaluates his work based on technique and his own artistic criteria…

“After I’m done, I go over the photos and (keep) the ones that capture 4 things that I want to characterize my images…
Beauty, Unity, Transcendence and Iconic-ness.”

Jason talks about his art being central to his Christian walk… What started as a quest for an interesting hobby, quickly transformed into a focus of his identity:

“I started to see photography and being a Christian who is a photographer as a core part of my identity as a Christian.”

Realizing that this was true, his goals changed. While he continues to enjoy shooting images (in fact, I would go so far as to say his images express a deep sense of joy), he has cultivated vision and purpose in finding opportunites to use his gifts and in “improving (his) ability to reflect God’s goodness and faithfulness through His created world.”

“I find that in photography, the hope of God’s goodness, faithfulness, greatness and abundant redemption are the focus of my work.  I feel ministered to and blessed by God as I photograph the beauty of His creation.”

Like many of the artists that I talk to, Jason finds that his gifts “don’t fit the mold” of art in the Church at-large. While his own church-family has been very encouraging, Jason doesn’t envision his photography being used in church primarily…

“I prefer to think of myself as a Christian who is a photographer and the audience for my work being people in general…. I hope the images speak truths about God to everyone who looks at them…. I see my ministry as one of creating excellent images that reveal God to everyone.”

As we spoke, I got curious about what would prompt a guy in his mid-30′s to suddenly start looking for an artistic hobby… He explained that his grandfather had recently died, leaving his reputation for hard work as his legacy…  Seeing the same characteristic in his own life, and wanting to pass along more to his own children, Jason decided that it was time to do something different…

It’s a decision that has changed Jason’s understanding of his place in God’s Kingdom…

Can you start something new today?

You can read and subscribe to Just Images, Jason’s blog, or add jstimages as a contact on Flickr.