Rachel and Picture Birmingham

Yesterday, I introduced you all to my longtime friend, Rachel, a sweet mom and wife who lives in Birmingham with her hubby, Chris, and their adorable 2 children.  Rachel and I met early on when I was living in Birmingham and we became blog buddies.  I’m old enough to be her mom, but she has such a sweet and caring heart and is a great writer.  She sent me pictures recently of her latest endeavor, which came about slowly as she became aware of an organization that she wanted to find a way to support, called The WellHouse.

I’ll let Rachel tell you in her own words, how Picture Birmingham came to be.  I really wanted to share this with all of you and it’s a way for Rachel to help raise money for a wonderful cause with her beautiful sunset pics.  Chasing Birmingham sunsets has become one of Rachel’s favorite side jobs and you can see why when you look at the pics.  All taken with her iphone!  As Rachel began her journey of taking mostly sunset pics around Birmingham, she began to figure out a way to use her talents in this picture taking arena to sell prints and donate the money to charity.  Rachel had also been sick and trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

From Rachel:

Last summer, I felt compelled to get involved with a local ministry, The WellHouse. God kept bringing them to my mind and putting articles in front of me about the stunning things they were doing. I resisted at first, because I don’t handle tragedy well – and their ministry is the rescue of women, men, and children from sex slavery. They were seeing and dealing with tragedy every day – tragedy that most of us don’t think happens in the United States. But it does. And one of the interstates running through Birmingham is the number one avenue for sex trafficking in the nation.

That was also when I started taking photos of Birmingham. Mostly sunsets, but with others mixed in.

Chris figured it out quicker than I did that these photographical journeys – the thrill of chasing the sunset, trying to catch it at just the right angle, not missing the perfect moment – that this was therapy for me. It made me forget my fears about what was wrong with me, gave me an adrenaline rush, and put a smile on my face.

It became ridiculous – many of my friends were making fun of me for my sunset obsession, but I couldn’t quit. The skies – and my city – had fully captured my heart.

Then other people started to ask if they could buy prints, and God started to put the pieces together for me. I could use this new passion He’d given me to benefit The WellHouse. It offered me a platform to help them build awareness on social media, as well as a way for me to support them financially. I could sell prints of the best of my photos, and give all the profits to their ministry. Perhaps this was why God made me obsessed with sunsets. Perhaps, just maybe, this was even why I got sick.

This post explains in lots more details the particulars behind The WellHouse and how Rachel felt compelled to get involved and try to make a difference.  I so admire that!  Making a difference in the world is a wonderful thing.  I had no idea this was such a huge problem in America, but apparently it is.

I love that Rachel is using her sunset picture taking skills and turning them into prints for people to buy and enjoy AND also benefitting a worthy cause like The WellHouse.  I just wanted to introduce you to Rachel and her story and give you all a chance to take part in this if you’d like to.

I follow Rachel on Instagram and began seeing these beautiful sunset pics rolling through her feed.

Then I found out about this new website she has launched, Picture Birmingham.

And I wanted to share with all of you!

You can stop over at Picture Birmingham and take a look at all of Rachel’s beautiful Birmingham sunset pics and if you’d like to order, she is offering 15% off anything in her shop to my readers and the code is “hospitality”.

I hope you’ll enjoy seeing Rachel’s pics and hearing her story!  I admire her so much for what she is doing for The WellHouse and to date, she has raised $3,250 for this organization.