Elizabeth and Jasons Enagement Photography

Theres something to be said about a couple that learns how sarcastic their wedding photographer is and proceeds to book them anyway. We chose Milford for the historic archetecture and relaxed atmosphere.

Thanks for being special you two!

Looking forward to your wedding this year at The Westin Governor Morris

2022 is the year of epic weddings.

Allie's Review

“Danny helped create a wonderful wedding experience for my husband and I! He has a very calming presence that helped us not stress with photos being taken all day and night. He arrived early showing us that he is professional and he cares. Danny spent the entire afternoon taking pictures of the bridal party capturing every important detail which continued until the wedding ended. He came up with a ton of creative positions for the family pictures and had even more beautiful ideas for our solo shots when Kyle and I were alone. I would recommend Danny to anyone...I couldn’t thank him enough!!”

— Allie D. married on 08/24/2019

Venue: The Brady Farm Warrwick, NY

Review Source - Wedding Wire

The Legendary Three Elements of Exposure

The Legendary Three Elements of Exposure

Legend has it that the first camera was forged in the ancient volcanic caves of mount Fuji . The three tribes Iso, shutti and iris were living in peace and joined forces to control over exposure and maximized dynamic range. But the volcano gods felt this was too great a power for only a few elite photographer tribes and Mount fuji erupted and consumer cameras flooded the market lowering the premium rates and putting cameras in the hands of Uncle's and nephews accross the world.

Now we study these elements to due away with automatic exposure and better the quality of our work

Jokes aside.

The Three elements of exposure or “The Exposure Triangle” consists of Shutter speed , Aperture and ISO.

Shutter speed

There is a mechanical shutter in most cameras that opens and closes to alow light to a hit the sensor for dialed in amount of time. It opens up allowing light and then closes stopping the light. This can determine the amount of motion blur in an image. Before you go jacking up your shutter speed to 1/8000 I want to remind you that you wont always need a fast shutter and sometimes a slow shutter can be used to tell your story creativly or create really cool effects like Shutter Drag. You can also use a slow shutter to capture motion in a single image called a long exposure. you can also create an illusion of frozen time.

Photographer: Danny Graham

Aperture

Apeture which we cover here. Is the size opening of the mechanical blades within a lens that allow how much light passes through it. This is partly responsible for your depth of field.

Photographer: Danny Graham

ISO

Iso (International Standards Organization) or what used to be ASA (American Standards Association) is a tricky one. Its the sensitivity of your film or sensor. I reccomend you learn the limitations of your cameras ISO becauase this can greatly increase the amount of digital noise on your camera and using film you’ll produce a much grainier image.

conclusion

While these are not as mythical and mysterious as you may have first thought they take time to master and learning them will greatly improve the quality of your work

Dana and Michaels Visual Timeline

Dana & Michael on their big day.

A beautiful ceremony with a gorgeous view of the Highpoint Monument

Who says that backyard weddings can't be amazing? We certainly don't. You could tell that Dana took great care in decorating the backyard of her parents New Jersey home. The ceremony was under a triangle arbor, centered with the Highpoint Monument out into the distance.

Dana's psychic had previously told her that the cake would be destroyed on her wedding day.

Matt, the chef from The Brownstone, was pending surgery for his ACL and was also the only one available to walk the cake to the bride and groom. Against all odds, the cake not only made it out in one piece, but it was so indestructibly frozen that they could barely cut it.

Not even fate could stop this couples wedding.

Click the button to view Dana and Mikes Wedding gallery!

Matt from Brownstone in Paterson, NJ

Gear Lust PSA

Gear lust is a serious problem. It can lead to you not appreciating the gear that you have and overly focusing on getting new gear to fix your problems.

Symptoms Include:

• Impulsively wanting to punch-in in post

• Feeling like you don’t have enough resolution

• Feeling unhappy coloring 8-bit footage in Davinci Resolve

• Feeling uncomfortable with your camera’s compression

• Needing to move your camera around excessively and not having a way to do it buttery smooth

• Impatiently wanting more clients to appreciate the quality of your work

• Problems sleeping

• Dehydration

• Difficulty concentrating on story writing

• Loss of interest in shooting with your old camera

If you or a love one is struggling with Gear Lust, Gear Envy or Gear Accusation Syndrome (GAS) seek help immediately.

Remember 1080p is usually all you need.

Resources:

Healthline : Shopping Addiction

Shopping Addiction Treatment: Know Your Options

If you suffer from gear lust, leave a comment below and share your experience.

Reminder - Timeline Visuals is not responsible for any gear lust it may cause in the making of these articles. Any purchases made after reading, are at the readers discretion and sole responsibility. Should you find your self drooling over a Sony FX6 , a7siii, crane 3s, or any piece of gear and do not have the financial stability to purchase those items, seek help immediately. Your wallet is not safe.

This page contains Amazon affiliate links. If you choose to purchase one of these products, we will be compensated and at no cost to you. This helps us to continue writing quality content for readers like you. Thank you for reading!

Thank You

For taking time to read this post. I hope you found some of this information valuable and look forward to post future articles for you in the future!

Timeline Visuals Halloween Concept Dump!

Timeline Visuals Photographer: Danny Graham & Model:Seana

The way I usually create concepts is to come up with a few props and then try to tie it all into a theme. It's not always some glamorously brilliant concept that’s tied to some society based theme, making the statement of a century. Sometimes a concept can just be the light from a candle and how cool your Sony a7siii is in lowlight. Then, you can run with it. Candles go well with darkness because they stand out. Halloween is all about dark and creepy. So making a dark Halloween themed concept around candles is a great choice. You could branch into messing with other creepy things that use candles.

Here are 5 concepts that you can try for yourself this Halloween season.

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I’ve included links to the props throughout this post. They are affiliate links and we typically make a few pennies if you purchase a prop through our link. But feel free to search for them outside the post. We don’t actually aim to profit off our readers so aggressively. Click any of the related links or just click the images to open one.

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Cults.

My mom doesn't have shit on a Cults’ candle burning output. So putting 2-3 models in creepy white nightgowns, inside an empty room with some jar of colored liquid could be a great concept. Just don't actually perform any ritual sacrifice, killing your neighbor's cat in the name of Satan is universally frowned upon.

Pro tip: Keep a fire extinguisher handy. Nothing says unprofessional like committing arson.

You could probably use an led light with something like this. Screw inefficiency. Cameras are getting better in lowlight, but I’m always alright with faking a few things.

Grave keeper

Nothing says Halloween like a man who declines the efficiency of a high powered led, and instead walks through a cemetery with box full of my wife's tea lights.

Blood.

Filling a bathtub with some nontoxic red liquid, and then surrounding it with candles would be pretty sweet.

Spawn of Satan

A nude /semi nude model with prosthetic horns, covered in a clear gel and some elements of fake blood would look awesome to shoot. Maybe while coming out of a dark cellar or basement.

Knives

I hate knives. Be careful, but jamming a bunch of old used kitchen knives that you got off of Facebook marketplace and forming a circle into a wall, or even the ground could be a cool background.

Probably one of the stranger things I've had in my Amazon cart.

Jenn & Brian's Visuals Timeline 9/03/21

What a Wild Night

9/03/21

Wedding Phots of bride and grooms first dance during their wedding reception - at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ- Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

(If you were at this wedding there is a guest album at the bottom of the article.)

I met Jenn through another photographer, and we initially had no idea that we had friends in common. In fact, Joey (My second shooter) and I both knew several members of her bridal party and didn’t find out until the day of. I learned a bit from her makeup artist, Amber Blanchard, who taught me about the nature of makeup powder and how it can be reflective under certain intensities of light. I had no idea that my flash can actually trigger shine in the powder. Even if its undetectable under normal light circumstance, due to the intensity of the light reflecting off the mica.

Wedding Photos of couples first dance- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ -Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of bride and grooms first dance during the wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

The Ceremony and reception took place and was catered at Casa Bianca, in Oak Ridge, NJ. Not only was cocktail hour delicious, but the staff was also friendly and accommodating. DJ services were handled by High Profile Events, which are by far one of the best DJ companies in NJ. There is a big difference felt when a DJ actually cares about the music that is being played, and this is extremely evident in their performance.

Brian and Jenn’s first Dance to Selena’s “Dreaming of You” started out beautiful and then took a surprising twist, where they swapped genres into “Found a Good One” by Chance the Rapper and broke out in an epic hip-hop performance.

Wedding Photos of wedding brides cousin performing Cuban Pete during the wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

At dinner, Jenn’s Cousin broke out in a lip synch performance that no one anticipated. He performed Cuban Pete from Jim Carey’s “The Mask”, and his clear attention to detail brought the entire dance floor back out from their dinner and into a raging conga line.

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ- Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

The night was full of joy and laughter, you could truly feel how much Jenn and Brian’s friends and family loved them. It was really an honor to be apart of such a connection.

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Wedding Photos- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of grooms brothers ripped pants during wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

IF YOU WERE AT JENN AND BRIAN’S WEDDING, THEN WE’VE CREATED A GUEST ALBUM WITH SOME INCRIMINATING DANCE FLOOR PHOTOS.

Photos are available to download with our water mark for free, but are limited to 5 photos per person. They are also available for purchase, via the portal which will also remove the watermark!

Thanks for checking us out! if you like our work you can check out more at

timelinevisuals.com/weddings

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photosof bride during her wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Wedding Photos of wedding reception- at Casa Bianca, Oakridge NJ - Wedding Photography by Timeline Visuals’ NJ Wedding Photographers

Lamide & Dom :Visual Timeline

Dom’s 35th Surprise Party

Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

Lamide and Dom both have birthdays that are within a few days of each other. For everyone that knows Lamide, she loves to plan events.

This was one for the books. She rented out the Speakeasy and Rails Steakhouse, which is connected to the Towaco Station off the NJ transit.

I had no idea what I was walking into. My wife said it was “Grown, no sneakers". So I put my nicest floral shirt on and swapped my joggers for regular pants. Then she walks out in a silky gold dress, looking like the first lady. I think that I might have downplayed her expectations.

Secret bookshelf door - Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

Secret bookshelf door - Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

We get to the venue and they inform us to take the elevator down to the basement. Waiting for us inside, is someone to guide us through a series of secret doors that enter the speakeasy. This was definitely not the average private room in a restaurant.

We enjoyed 5 courses that night. During cocktail hour, we waited for Lamide and Dom to arrive. It was Lamide’s birthday, but we were also surprising and celebrating Dom's 35th. The hors d'oeuvres were getting pumped out at a rapid concession. I've been to plenty of cocktails, but never have I been offered so much food so quickly.

Dom realizing that the party was actually for him - Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

After the birthday surprise, we began enjoying our next 4 courses. Lamide lead us with instructions on an ice breaking game for a cash prize, where we are to write the names of people that fit the descriptions on a list.

Table setting in the speakeasy- Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

The courses were high end. Everything was really well crafted, but I think that's to be expected from such a luxurious establishment. And it also extended to the service as well. If you walked away from your table, they refold your napkin immediately after you leave. They also never let your water cup empty. I'm a heavy duty water chugger, and the aquatic ninjas that they hire is beyond me.

Karaoke around the table - Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

Which bridges to when I had to use the restroom. Leaving the room was a bit of a challenge. There was a proximity sensor on the door, and I was unaware of this because of how dark it was. Once I was through I almost broke the emergency glass thinking I was in some sort of escape room. I'm glad that I didn't though, as it was real and the gate just simply pushes open. At one point Dom and I had pulled every book on the bookshelf with little success only to find it was a hidden doorbell. The puzzling nature of the place was alot of fun.

The food was phenomenal. I've heard that you can judge a place by it's calamari and it was the second appetizer. It was damn good. I comideering the entire plate from one of Dom's cousins seated next to me, who had a culinary degree. I ended up picking his brain for the better half of the evening.

Lamide had a series of games planned, and the night concluded in some impromptu karaoke. It was a wonderful evening, with wonderful people. I always appreciate when Lamide and Dom invite us to their parties and I wish both of them plenty of good fortune on this next trip around the sun.

Lamide and Dom towards the end of a very successful party - Event photography @ Rails Steak House Towaco, NJ

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Thanks for checking us out!

If you like our work you can check out more at

timelinevisuals.com

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Shutter Speed, Whats that?

What is Shutter Speed?

I just took your photo, wanna see me do it again? Wanna see me do it in slow-motion?

Photographer : Danny Graham -Engagement session at Raymond skills falls in PA, using a faster shutter speed to preserve a frozen moment.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Using flash and a relatively fast shutter to preserve the bride’s cousin’s dance moves, at her wedding at Casa Bianca in New Jersey.

The camera’s shutter is a mechanical (sometimes digital) device, that opens and closes for a predetermined amount of time. (There is also an open shutter for long exposure shots.)

Shutter is measured in parts of a second. Examples are 1/10,1/15, 1/30,1/60, 1/120, 1/240, but also in full seconds 1s , 5s ,10s.

Photographer Danny Graham, captures spark using a fast shutter during bride and grooms first dance at Casa Bianca in New Jersey.

The amount of time that the shutter is open or that the sensor is accepting light, determines the exposure of the image. It also determines how much motion blur the image gets or doesn't get.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Model Seana, stands in front of a moving train. Here we’re using a slow enough shutter to capture the motion of the train, but it’s still fast enough to preserve the model’s details.

Before you go cranking your shutter up to 1/8000, keep in mind that there are times when the motion blur from a slower shutter can be desirable. You can show a fast moving object, with a still world to emphasize the contrast of energy.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Entrance sparklers captured with some motion blur.

A fast moving subject can be followed as it passes, producing a clear crisp subject and it can emphasize the motion in a single image. Or you can always use a flash to preserve your subject and blur the background, using a process called Shutter Drag. Common examples are often used in motorcycle photography.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Capturing friends and motion blur on the dance floor. Wedding/Event @ Casa Bianca in Oak Ridge, NJ

Photographer : Danny Graham - Using shutter drag with a flash and a slower shutter speed. Wedding/Event @ Casa Bianca in Oak Ridge, NJ.

Contrast to using motion blur, you can always crank up the shutter and freeze motion. This can be awesome when capturing moments that are typically too quick to appreciate all of the fine details. Like someone or something frozen in mid air, or the spray of water, dirt or dust.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Shooting pigeons in a NYC park. The birds are frozen in time, using a faster shutter speed.

For video : Typically, you double or divide your shutter in half, in order to move up and down full stops of light. For video, it's often advised to follow the 180 rule. This is the perceived cinematic “normal”, in which you are doubling the frame rate to identify the shutter. Using the 180 rule, if you shoot in 24p as a frame rate, than your shutter should be set to 1/48 or 1/50. This is not so much a rule, but more of a guide. I encourage you to experiment with different frame rates and faster shutters, to produce crisper motion with less motion blur.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Captures a drummer playing mid-beat.

Photographer : Danny Graham - Capturing some entrance sparklers, while balancing the exposure and also timing the moment for the Bride and Grooms exit at Crystal Springs Ballyowen Golf Club in Hamburg, NJ.

Hopefully this helps you to better understand shutter speed and how it works. It’s used as a lot more than just a way to control the exposure, so I hope that this knowledge can help your photography grow. Thank you for reading!

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What is Aperture?

Photo By: Danny Graham (Wantage , New Jersey , 07461)

Image credit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

In photography and video, a lens’s aperture is a set of blades that open and close to control the amount of light passing through the lens. It is part of the Three Elements of Exposure.

The way that the number is represented is called an F-stop, and it’s labeled as “f/” followed by a number like 1, 1.4 ,2, 2.8 , 4 , 5.6 , 8 , 11 ,16 , 22. These are all full stops, but you may also see numbers like 1.2, 1.8, 3.2, 4.5 , ect. These examples instead follow a 1/3 stop.

This article has a great chart of the different measured stops

Similarly you may find T stops on cinema lenses, which are measured more extensively for motion picture. More on T stops here.

Summary

Aperture has a large play in the DOF (Depth of Field). Depending on your subject, you may want to open or close your aperture in order to create a greater depth of field. For example, if you are shooting landscape photography, then you may want a greater depth. And with portraits, you might want isolate your subject from other details in the frame. If you are just starting out, a great option to learn DOF is a 50 1.8 (Nifty-50). These are typically inexpensive, and you’ll be able to see the specific changes in DOF (more specifically on the shallow end).

The following image was taken several years ago with my old Canon 60D and Canon 50mm F/1.8. this camera and lens can likely be found together used for sub $200

Image by Danny Graham: Taken with Canon 50mm F/1.8 and Canon 60D

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Photographer: Danny Graham

Photographer: Danny Graham