Phoenix Wedding & Lifestyle Photographers | Session Nine Photographers

Just about a week before we did this photo shoot, Jeff & Patti had just found out that their youngest son, Cooper, was diagnosed with Leukemia. We watched the whole thing unfold via Facebook and immediately began praying for them. We have known Jeff & Patti for several years now. I (Jess) used to work with Jeff and both Jason and I have spent a great deal of time with them. We were devastated to hear about Cooper’s diagnosis. When Jeff contacted us wanting a photo shoot, we of course were up for it! We squeezed them in pretty quick onto our calendar because Jeff & Patti wanted to have this shoot done before Cooper’s hair falls out, due to the chemo that they’ve already started. And we couldn’t wait to spend some time with the four of them.

And just as we expected, this family came to the shoot in positive spirits, smiling faces and joy in their hearts. These people have a faith that could move mountains and trust in a God that is bigger and better than anything else we could ever put our faith in. When asked how they were doing, they both kind of just shrugged. You could obviously see the fear, uncertainty, and the pain from the entire previous week. But an unexplainable joy and peace STILL exuded out of them. We spent the afternoon with them joking about all kinds of things, cancer included. Cooper came ready with his boxing gloves to signify that he is READY to kick cancers’ butt and to get rid of it. He had some fun with that with his older brother, Ben, and we had some pretty hysterical laughs!

This is an amazing family. We HATE that cancer has infiltrated their lives. But we are praying every day that he is healed and that God is glorified in his story. That some day, Cooper will be able to look back on his life and say that cancer WAS a part of his story. And that he conquered it and has been healed completely.

Check out, The Gokees…

Ever since Session Nine Photographers was born, we have been brainstorming and envisioning around this idea of a creative film piece that we wanted to create to help express what it’s like to work with us. Something visual and dynamic that so when people would jump onto our website or blog, they would get a great feel right off the bat about who we are. We wanted it to be fun, full of life, artistic, and to represent the BOTH of us.

Our dear friend and artistic genius, Chris Loope, collaborated with us on this project and this dream for nearly two years. Finally, late in 2011, everything aligned right for us to begin filming at several different shoots and locations to make this happen. Chris worked his tail off. When this guy invests into a creative project, he is all heart, all in.

He absolutely nailed it on the head. What Chris put together with the footage we shot over four different days, two weddings, and two different states translated so incredibly well for us. Part of the reason is that we’re great friends with him.

This short video has been something we’ve been dreaming of and talking about for a very long time. We’re so proud to share it finally AND to say that it has completely surpassed ALL of our hopes and expectations. We had SO many people who put a lot of time and effort into helping us make this video possible. And for that, we are forever grateful. Check it out below, we are super proud of it and hope you’ll love it too.

It was a super special moment. Amy is absolutely glowing as her dad is just about to give her away to Tyler. And this incredible stolen glance was caught right before they reached the end of the aisle. Love this.

To see Tyler + Amy’s entire post from their wedding this past November, please click HERE.

Really. We had a rad time. So, this is what we’re working on right now! We can’t wait to share the entire wedding with you. It’ll be worth the wait, but we won’t make you wait too long.

It was Matthew + Amanda’s wedding day. They had already had their first look and had spent a good amount of time together as we did their Romantics. Still, the ceremony started and no sooner had Amanda started walking down the aisle, Matthew couldn’t hold back. It’s moments like these that can cause us to well up MONTHS later even.

It’s why we do what we do. And it’s why we love it so much.

To see the full blog post of Matthew + Amanda’s wedding from this past August, please click here.