Dotson Studios

Welcome!

We are Grant & Sara Dotson. As a husband and wife team, we bring a unique perspective to photography, one influenced by life experiences as well as comprehensive art and design training. Our cameras are an extension of not only our eyes, but our minds and hearts, instantly capturing moments and emotions just as they occur. We enjoy getting to know our clients on a personal level and helping them feel that they're a part of a partnership. Every client is different, and our photographs seek to reflect each individual personality for truly unforgettable memories.

Photo of Grant: Courtesy of Jamie Weiss. Thanks Jamie!

Brandi & Brian’s Wedding

Thursday, September 23, 2010

What a fun and wonderful wedding!! We LOVED shooting this wedding for Brandi and Brian. We really clicked with this couple and had a blast during their engagement pictures and couldn’t wait to see how everything came together for this special couple. The day ended up being a little unpredictable since we were expecting scattered showers and both the ceremony and reception were planned to be outside, but everything worked out perfectly and this was truely a spectacular day.

I instantly fell in love with Brandi’s dress (her second dress…) and working at Grandview is always fabulous. I love the natural elements and interesting textures everywhere we turned. Plus Brandi and Brian made sure every detail of this wedding reflecting their unique personality. It was perfect.

Congrats to the happy couple…we hope you love your pictures. Thank you so much for asking us to be a part of your day!

What did you enjoy most about planning your wedding?
All the little details that we decided to make to reflect our personalities & likes.

How did you decide on your dress?
Well…I already had another dress that I had gotten soon after getting engaged and saw this one a few weeks before the wedding with my mom. She was a trouper and went back with me to try it on. I KNEW IT WAS THE ONE and surprisingly it fit perfectly!

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
Not sure we can really say given everything was awesome but getting married outside was a big deal for us as we love the outdoors.

What are three words you would use to describe your day?
Excited, Nervous, and HAPPY (in that order).

What was the most memorable moment about your wedding day?
Hearing “I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Brian & Brandi Barker” and then later seeing that Brian had a “battlewound” from hand-gliding the morning of the wedding! Also, walking with my dad down the isle was super special….

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future?
Getting into our daily routine as husband and wife. The future, hmmm, good times, family, memories, travelling…all the good stuff.

Posted in Weddings

by Sara Dotson

1 comment

add a comment link to this post email a friend

Jamie King’s Bridal Portraits

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

We are so excited to be posting Jamie King’s bridal portraits! You may remember that Jamie was the winner from our contest at the Premier Bridal Show and she won a free bridal photoshoot! We talked with Jamie earlier this year and her plans for her wedding changed and her and her husband decided to elope! So we actually took these photos about a week after their wedding when they got back in town.

Jamie was so much fun to work with! We started at the UTC campus and then found this neat old building downtown that had been abandoned. Jamie was a natural in front of the camera and was a trouper while we put her in some tricky spots. We all had fun on this shoot and are so excited for this sweet new couple.

Thanks Jamie for your willingness to do some untraditional things…we hope you love your photos!

Posted in Bridal, Weddings

by Sara Dotson

no comments

add a comment link to this post email a friend

Mary McKenna 3 Months Old

Friday, September 10, 2010

Mary McKenna is such a sweet little baby! We had a wonderful time shooting this family and enjoyed the sweet spirit of their little girl. We’ve known Morgan from Soirees for a while now it was so special to be able to spend a little time with this sweet family and capture just a snippet of the tremendous love in this house.

Michael is an incredible father…always playing and engaged with his little girl and they all seemed so relaxed and content in their new family and all of the changes that come with that. It truly was a special time with a really special family.

Thanks Morgan and Michael…we hope to be able to do this again sometime!

Posted in Little Ones, Vendors

by Sara Dotson

no comments

add a comment link to this post email a friend

Mary & James’ Wedding

Saturday, August 28, 2010

We had such a special time being a part of Mary and James’ wedding! We really clicked with this couple and loved their sense of style. Because of distance we didn’t get to meet them until their Engagement Session and we had such a fun time with them I knew we were going to love every second of their wedding.

We all met up at Alpha Baptist Church in Morristown and everything was decorated so beautifully, plus we had a fabulous field right across the street from the church which was great for some pictures. Mary was a gorgeous bride and this attractive couple was really easy to photograph! After their reception we got to do something we’ve never done before…go on a plane ride with the bride and groom!! I stayed on the ground while Grant went up for thirty minutes with Mary and James and then afterwards we enjoyed a little time being able to take pictures on an empty air strip! The pilot (a friend of James) also had a Harley he brought over…really, we could not have wished for anything else…it was all so perfect and fabulous.

Thank you so much, Mary and James for asking us to photograph you wedding, it was beautiful, special, and a privilege.

How did you decide on your dress?
I bought my dress just nine days after James proposed. After trying on several different styles, I slipped my dress on and became a real life princess. The way I looked in that dress matched how my heart felt—beautiful!

What did you enjoy most about planning your wedding?
Our most favorite part about planning the wedding was choosing our photography and seeing our love story told in a cool new way. This was the funnest part of our day, and we could not be more excited to see all the pictures!

What are three words you would use to describe your day?
The three words we would use to describe our day are: honest, breathtaking, and chic.

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
My favorite detail is hard to choose because I had so many details that were amazing! I spent hours upon hours choosing every little detail. The one that really stands out the most to me is my bouquet. It was so gorgeous! It was an arrangement of white flowers, lamb’s ears, and brooches. I give all the credit to our floral designer who did a fabulous job!

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future?
It all still feels somewhat surreal, but the future is bright for James and I. James is finishing up his last year of graduate school and I am working as a Registered Dietitian. For now, we are living in Johnson City, Tennessee. We had so much fun on our honeymoon that we are eager to do more traveling, and to experience more new things together. We are also looking forward to meeting new couples in the neighborhood to hang out with, getting plugged into a local church, and spending are first Christmas together as man and wife.

What was the most memorable moment about your wedding day?
The most memorable moment of our perfect day was, without a doubt, our plane ride. After the reception, James and I were chauffeured over to the Morristown airport in a 1955 Chevorlet where we got into a 4-passenger airplane and flew over the city as the sun began to set. It was romantic, relaxing, and so much fun! It was the perfect ending to our beautiful day.