From the mountains of Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina hails a young trio known as The Wilder Flower. Made up of Madeline Dierauf (fiddle), Molly Johnson (banjo), and Danielle Yother (guitar), each are accomplished musicians in their own right, and together they have put together their own twist on Americana, folk, bluegrass, and old time. With beautiful 3-part harmonies and creative song writing, The Wilder Flower has been drawing larger crowds everywhere they go.
In the Spring of 2024, Madeline reach out to me asking if I would be available to help them with photos for their debut album. I am continually flattered to be part of projects like this and it is truly an honor to be trusted with something that will be around for years to come. After a few emails and phone conversations, we had a game plan, and now we just needed a location.
From a previous project I worked on, I remembered a beautiful piece of property with an empty farm house, old barn, and a great big field. This would tie in perfectly with their style of music and give us a variety of backgrounds without having to change locations.
The farm house is fairly stark (inside and out), lacking in any real color. Peeling paint, empty rooms, and no power all added to the vibe we were looking for. Luckily, one side of the house has great windows that let in some beautiful natural light that I was able to fill in with a flash. For the photos, it made me think of images that I might have captured with my old Canon AE-1 35mm film camera back in the late 80s/early 90s. So that’s the look I was going for. Soft edges, muted colors, deep blacks, and not so white whites.
Contrary to the house, the barn is filled with textures and shadows, with a nice pop of yellow color from some mold/fungus on the wood. I wanted to bring out the grain of the wood by embracing the shadows a bit more and pushing the contrast a little harder. I kept the color temp a little more neutral as it seemed to match the feel of the barn.
About 100 feet away is a slight ridge that created the perfect background for the third and final scene. Here, the blue sky feels really warm and the lack of leaves on the trees kept it from being too distracting with bright greens or yellows. The goal was to create an airy feel, but still have a connection to the previous scenes for continuity since this was all part of the same project. I tried to keep things looking as natural as possible without under- or over-saturating the images, but I did still lean into the blacks a bit for a touch of contrast.
Madeline, Molly, and Danielle were an absolute blast to work with and I had a ton of fun on this shoot. I love when I get to have some time to be able to play around, experiment with different possibilities, and it becomes a true collaboration of ideas. The Wilder Flower debut album, If I Wait Any More, was released in September 2024 and you can check it out on most streaming platforms.
To listen to If I Wait Any More: CLICK HERE
To learn more about The Wilder Flower or to buy the album: CLICK HERE
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR NEXT PROJECT!