The Campbell Family (yep that includes our associate photographer Donnally) requested that I drove to Mena (yes my hometown) for their family portraits on their farm. What a beautiful place they have and so many good spots to shoot at!!!
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite shot of the whole day!!!
Enjoy!
-erika
Katie and Matt met up with us for a Mini Session (which by the way are still available for $50 – interested…..email us at erikadotson@gmail.com or text 479-871-8932). Katie contacted me and wanted to do somewhat of an anniversary session, they’ve been married for three years and I think that’s a fabulous tradition! My hubby and I take pictures every fall too!!! Great for Christmas cards! :) They were such an easy going couple and old pros at being photographed, which certainly made my job easier. Here’s some beautiful images for you two!
Enjoy!
-erika
I met up with Amanda and Cade less than a week ago out on some property that Cade grew up on with his buddy. What a beautiful place up in Missouri! Amanda and Cade are so cute together too! If you are big into fishing at all you’ll know Cade’s name! Yea he’s that good! I hear he’s going to be on TV next year! That’s super awesome! When Amanda and I told him that he could go fishing during the engagement shoot we had to practically run to keep up with him! I imagine these two have had lots of fun and memories on many a camping trip! And that cutie Amanda she has her own camo outfit fully decked out for a girl…..PINK details! Awesome! Oh and the arrows on her bow are zebra and pink! Someone was thinkin! When Amanda mentioned the idea of wearing camo gear for some pictures I was totally excited! I just love that part of their session! They will be getting married at Cooper Chapel and their reception will follow at Simple Pleasures just down the road! I’m excited for them!
I posted a few of my favorites and a slideshow at the bottom with more!!!
I just love this image and the lighting is great!
Hi Amanda and Cade……CONGRATS!
I like this one a lot too…..look how happy Amanda is! :)
Ummm of course the super talented fisherman caught a fish during our session…..barely! ;)
This is fun! See her arrows are pink!
She’s gorgeous huh?
Enjoy!
-erika
If you are a facebook fan of ours (if you aren’t you should be sure to go look us up!!! ) you most likely noticed that I made a post of how pathetic I thought it was that my parents don’t have good pictures of themselves and I am a professional photographer…….problem solved!
Introducing my parents! :) I know they will be so excited!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha
I might be just a bit biased but I think my mom is beautiful! :)
One thing I’ve learned from my parents is that as husband and wife it’s important to show affection to one another in front of your kids. The reason I think this is so important is because it proved to me that my parents loved each other! Simple as it may sound I know several couples that don’t show affection to one another and you wonder….. Thanks you two!
My stepdad (AKA “Papa” which is short for “Papa Coach”) was so proud of his Jack Purcell’s which is pretty much an old school version of our Converse. In fact he special ordered these to wear to his 50 year high school reunion! Mom said he wasn’t going to wear them unless the tip was navy blue color! Wow talk about exact!
This I think is my favorite shot of the day! My mom looks great!
LOVE!
I hope you two had fun on our little session! I know it was a memory making experience! I just want to say thank you so much for being great parents for me and also grandparents for little Titan! I’m so proud of you mom for going back to school! You really are amazing! I love you guys so much!
Enjoy!
-erika
Rob and Amanda contacted me earlier this month and they will be getting married next weekend! I drove down to Little Rock and met them from Memphis to shoot their engagement session yesterday. Rob and Amanda are seriously an adorable couple! I can’t wait for their wedding day it’s going to be great! Rob is in the military, pretty sure he’s an officer? And Amanda is none other than a Dietitian….if you know what I went to college for then you’d understand the instant connection! I just loved Amanda’s laugh and the way Rob looks at his future wife. They met at a baseball game where Amanda was working at a health information booth. (seriously I told you they were cute!) They have been dating for 5 years now and have been engaged for about a year and a half. From what I understand they’ve had to change their wedding date several times due to Rob’s job. They will be moving to Rhode Island soon after they wed, Nov 8th to be exact! They’ll sure be busy but have lots of fun adventures (such as driving across the country with 3 doggies in the car!) as a newly married couple! Congratulations you two and I wish you the best! I can’t wait for next weekend!
Rob and Amanda are really into history so we thought this location would be fitting.
Isn’t she just stunning! I can’t wait to see how beautiful she looks next week!
Sweet.
I love how happy the two of them are in this shot!
I just love how you can just barely see part of her smile!
“It adds character” Rob kept saying this phrase about everything, even down to the dirt he got on the back of his jeans so this is especially for him!
ADORABLE!
This one I may have to claim as my favorite shot of the day!
They are just classically beautiful.
Enjoy!
-erika
Hey, Donnally here! I’m a new intern for Erika Dotson Photography, find out more about me here.
Meet Elizabeth and Andrew, a ridiculously cute couple! Erika threw me a camera, and I started snapping pictures… a great way to learn the ropes! Erika gave me a ideas for themes, I chose a first date theme for the couple because I thought it would be perfect for them. It was a fun shoot, complete with cupcakes from Bliss Cupcake Cafe, balloons, and lots of laughter. We shot the mini-session with them in downtown Fayetteville. Elizabeth and Andrew, recently engaged, were great to work with!
Bliss was a cute place to begin the shoot, owner Shelley Cassar, was happy to have Bliss as the set for the first date theme.
To set up the first date theme, Elizabeth and Andrew picked out their cupcakes. Their taste of choice was chocolate milkshake and carrot cake. Yum!!!
*Erika here – It was such a treat to be able to teach Donnally what I knew about photography this day. I’m super excited to have her on board as an intern here! Can’t wait for what is to come! Be sure to check out her about page.
Yes, old fashion Coca-Cola was a must for the shoot!
I’ve got nothing for you… but meet the cupcakes.
Andrew kept blowing bubbles in the Coca-Cola, making Elizabeth all smiles.
*We thought it may be a bit awkward if Donnally wrote about herself, so here I am again. I loved how she just jumped onto this table to shoot! She’s learning already one of the most important factors on a shoot…..not worrying about your surroundings and how silly you look propped up on the table! I love it! :)
Gorgeous lighting.
I love the way Andrew looks at her. So sweet.
And forehead kisses… bonus!!!
This picture sums up the couple. Perfect.
Enjoy!
-Donnally
Hey there everyone! Several of you ladies contacted me at the beginning of the week regarding your wedding CD’s and I mentioned that I would be sending them out that day……then you all received an email shortly afterwards that said nevermind bc I have a little surprise for you!!! Well guess what I’m a horrible secret keeper (at least when it involves something so awesome like this!) and I’m just going to share it with you here, then you can be surprised when you actually get them in the mail!!! :)
I recently ran out of my traditional old labeled CD’s that I give to clients……you know the ones with my logo and name plastered all over them, which gave me an excuse to go order more……. Well that’s when it hit me! I’m going to make custom CD’s for all my clients!!! Yea be excited! :)
And without making you wait any longer for a picture……….
I’m so excited to get these out to you guys tomorrow!
Enjoy!
-erika
Tanja and David, where in the world do I start? Well right here in my backyard in fact! Tanja has been out to my house many times and knew this was the area she wanted to have her engagements done. David is such a sport and does pretty much whatever Tanja musters around in her head! I love it! David adores her and I think it’s beautiful. I was actually there the day that he proposed to her hiding behind a rock ledge trying to capture some photos of the whole thing!
Tanja wanted a vintage style to her engagements and I just love these travel inspired ones we started out with! It was a BIG deal to keep track of David’s passport (as he’s visiting from England)!!!!
I have wanted to photograph someone on this bridge for a very long time! I’m so glad that Tanja was able to see the same thing I did as she drove over it for the first time to my house!!!
We then headed to another place that I’ve been dying to shoot at!!! Every weekend when we go to visit TW’s parents we pass this vineyard and I always put in a mental note: I’ve got to take someone out here!!!! Now I can put that note aside thanks to Tanja! She’s so stinkin beautiful……doesn’t she just look famous with that beautiful hair?!?!?!!?
This next set has a bit of a funny background story to it. We first tried to set up our picnic in the middle of the dirt road. But between getting the blanket down, the typewriter, the soda, and not to mention the couple a car would come then we’d do it all over again and another car would come!!! We got a bit frustrated but headed to a beautiful field instead. But the story doesn’t stop there, while we were taking these Tanja noticed some cows getting closer and closer…….well apparently we were in the middle of two fields of cows that were headed towards one another as if they were going to battle! Needless to say we got our stuff quickly and hopped over on the other side of the fence into the “safe” zone!!! :) Then afterwards they followed us to the gate and we tried to touch them. I didn’t realize they hadn’t ever seen a cow that close before! If I would have known that I would have stuck them out in our field and let our little cow come say hi!!!
Tanja and David I can’t wait to fly out to Europe next summer for your wedding day!!! You two are such a beautiful couple! It’s been such a blast being able to work alongside you two and see you grow!
Much Love
-erika
Danielle and Justin are such a sweet and in love couple! I have known Danielle for a few years, we attended the U of A together and graduated from the Dietetics program together in 2008. A few years back I offered to shoot Danielle and her friend McKinzie just for fun, and we did just that, had lots of fun! We came out with some great shots of the both of them. Since then we were able to shoot McKinzie’s wedding last summer at the Botanical Gardens and are super excited that she’s having a baby boy too!!! :) But we’re more excited that we’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to shoot Danielle’s wedding in Conway this October!!! I can’t wait. She is so beautiful! This girl is truly amazing! She works with kids on a daily basis and loves every second of it. And thank you Justin for supporting her in life, because we all know she probably comes home sometimes wiped out and completely exhausted from sharing that love all day! We need more people in the world just like them! Oh and a big congrats to Justin who just graduated from UCA in Kinesiology!
We shot these lovely engagements out at the Botanical Gardens on Friday!
Are they not just the most adorable couple ever?
I just love the way she looks at him!
This is just too lovely!
Love love love love it!
She’s gorgeous…….I told ya so!
I just love this yummy light!
Love.
Thanks you guys you were wonderful!
Enjoy!
-erika
Hey there I just realized I posted Erika and Johnny’s pictures on Facebook but I failed to ever blog them!!!! Silly me. So anyways Erika and Johnny. I met Erika while working at Forever 21. She was a pretty quiet girl and I didn’t talk much with her at first, but then I started working in the mornings with her and every Thursday we would have a nice long chat while I cleaned up the jewelry room and she changed the mannequins in the windows. Johnny proposed to her on Christmas by leaving the box in the Christmas tree in their home. So adorable. She was glowing when I got to work the next day! It was so much fun to watch her get so excited and giggly about all the plans and her dress! :) They moved to El Dorado Texas, quite a trek back to Northwest Arkansas so I decided I would meet her halfway in Dallas for something different and fun to shoot. Well as luck would have it, it was extremely cold that day for some odd reason!?!?!?!? That actually turned out to the be weekend we got that 11 inches of snow, yep and we drove back home in it making a five hour trip from Dallas into an eleven hour trip!!!! Lot’s of good memories! Erika and Johnny were really great troopers, they were up for anything as well as putting up with me constantly changing my mind about where to shoot. There is so much to shoot in Dallas it’s a bit overwhelming for a photographer! Here’s some beautiful shots of Erika and Johnny.
Ending with my favorite shot of the day!
Enjoy!
-erika
