I am an Atlanta based, wedding photographer but more importantly I am an artist. I believe that there is beauty in everything and that life, itself, is beautiful in all of its uncertainty. My camera serves as a powerful tool, allowing me to express my creativity in amazing, sometimes unconventional ways. I am able to use the medium of photography to capture the magnificence and beauty of the world as well as the people in it.
I look forward to meeting you, reading your comments, and sharing my work with you. Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. I hope you come back soon and often! To book the studio email us at studio@saadiamechel.com
Life can become so serious sometimes that we can often forget to stop and smell the roses. In other words… we forget to enjoy life. I know that I am guilty of this as much as the next person. I become so consumed with finding a job, paying bills, doing school work, developing my business, etc. that I forget to enjoy life and all the wonderful things & people that surround me. I only get this one life to live so I should fully enjoy the ride right? So starting today I am going to make a conscious effort to enjoy life more. I promise to not complain and worry as much but instead to stop and smell the roses… well ummm… sunflowers lol Perhaps you should consider doing the same?
I met Chanelle almost three years ago when we were both working at Hands On Atlanta. Before we were paired up on a team together… Chanelle thought I was stuck up and mean (Go figure?! lol). She later discovered how wrong she was after we bonded over our mutual disdain for a person (that shall not be named) and she realized how goofy and silly I actually am. I was equally intrigued by my new friend as well. Now… I consider Chanelle to be one of my very best friends. I suppose some things are just meant to be and I hope this is a friendship that I keep for a lifetime. I enjoyed capturing the essence of you for your 25th birthday. I hope you enjoy these. Happy Birthday Chanelle!
Everyone has their faults and I, by no means, am any different. However, in the space that I choose to live my life I feel as if I’m well… perfect, without any fault. I mean who doesn’t think they are perfect from time to time? I would like to believe I’m not sitting on a island of one. I think we as people, in general, don’t like to be wrong. We don’t like people to expose our bad points, the negatives, the things we need to work on because frankly… once someone points out some fault in you, we can no longer hide behind the facade of our so called “perfection.”
I had one such moment a couple of days ago. Someone very important to me exposed me for the person that I truly am. I’m not gonna lie the words stung like rubbing alcohol in an open wound. He poignantly told me that I had no faith or trust in anything. Now, being the “perfect” person I am… I denied it adamantly. “Of course I have faith!” I retorted. I couldn’t help but think how could he hurt me like that? The reality is that he wasn’t trying to hurt me but… make me better. Improvement should always be welcomed. However, sometimes the truth hurts and over the past few days I have come to terms with this part of my personality. This is a part of myself that I most certainly want to change but the first step in changing something is to acknowledge that it exist. This is me acknowledging the problem…
I acknowledge that when it really counts my faith wanes and as a Christian, someone that loves God more than anything, I should at least have the utmost trust and faith in Him. So… here starts my journey to completely trust and have faith in Him (in all aspects of my life) as well as having faith in those that surround me. I’m sharing this on my blog because as I continue on this journey of developing my business, I must have faith that God will provide resources, knowledge, skills, clients, etc. to help my business thrive and grow. The Bible defines faith, in Hebrews 11:1, as the ”substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This is the kind of faith I strive for. This is me being vulnerable and if anyone can benefit from my self discovery then that makes it all the better.
Does anybody else ever struggle with/in their faith? I leave you with a video of Mandy Moore singing “Have a Little Faith In Me.” I think a little faith goes a long way…
I had the honor and pleasure of photographing one of my very best friends for her birthday. I’m still editing the photos but here is a little teaser from our session yesterday. I love you Nellie! Happy Birthday!
Family vacations are interesting to say the least; this trip was no different. My mother had to bowl in a tournament in El Paso, TX so me and my family jumped in a car and drove the 1400 miles across this great country. We are Georgians so we passed through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and all the way across Texas to get to El Paso which sits right on the border of Juarez, Mexico. Although we weren’t able to visit Mexico for safety reasons it was interested being in a place that was so close Mexico. El Paso serves as a perfect mixture between American and Mexican culture. Since we were so close, we drove to New Mexico. Although the drive was long (over 20 hours) it was definitely an experience I enjoyed and… another thing I can cross of my list of 101 in 1001.
“If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else”
As part of my 101 in 1001, I wanted to read(at least) five books to improve my business in some way. The first book on my list was The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Ramsey is a total money guru. The Total Money Makeover is very good book for people who want to gain financial freedom and to live debt free. This is not his only book but I can say that it has helped me to look at money, debt, and credit in drastically different ways. I no longer want to be a slave to my debt. He continually says throughout the book “if you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” Basically he is saying if you make sacrifices now… later on you can reap the benefits of living a debt free life. Sounds good to me! A couple photographer’s blogs I follow mentioned Ramsey and his book so I thought it was worth reading for myself. I was definitely right in my assumption…
The book starts with Ramsey debunking myths about credit, loans, mortgages, etc. In other words, all the things that can often cause us stress. The second partof the book Ramsey lays out proven steps to becoming debt free and gaining financial freedom and security. I particularly like the part about snowballing to pay off your debt. Ramsey explains that snowballing is the quickest way to paying off your debt. The Debt Snowball requires you to list all your debts in order of smallest payoff balance to largest. From there, every dollar you can find from anywhere else in your budget goes toward the smallest debt until it is paid off. Once the smallest is paid, the payment from that debt, plus any extra “found” money, is added to the next smallest debt. Every time the Snowball rolls over, it picks up more “snow” and gets larger, and by the time you get to the bottom of the list, the money available to put towards the largest payoff balance is substantial. With this process… we are talking about being COMPLETELY debt free is a year and a half. Can you imagine??? Sounds goods to me! Just between you and me… I’ve already paid off two of my debts in a month using this method.
There are many more tips in the book from building an emergency fund to budgeting. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone but only if you truly want to be debt free. As I work on developing my photography business I certainly don’t want to enter in to business under a mountain of debt. Furthermore, good money management is a skill that will always be useful and beneficial. So.. check it out. It’ll probably be the best 25 dollars you’ll ever spend.
