What setting could be more ideal for a Recollections photo shoot than the lovely Mackinac Island in Michigan? No cars are permitted there, and everyone comes to the island via a ferry boat. Earlier this month, models CJ (blonde), Lindsey (the redhead), and Courtney (the brunette), gathered for the shoot along with hairdresser Sharon. Susan, and Susan’s daughter Sydney, and Recollections owner Marianne rounded out the group. This shoot was a collaborative effort between Recollections, and David Murcko, a New York based photographer who specializes in fine art, portraiture, travel photography and alternative process printing. You can see some of David’s photographs at: murckophotography.com. David’s father – the award-winning portrait artist Bill Murcko also joined in, and David’s wife Betty accompanied him on this shoot as well. You can view Bill’s work at billmurckoartist.com
In spite of the idyllic setting and lovely weather, the shoot was far from all play. Because the ferry is the only way onto the island, most of the crew had to be on-site the night before, as the shoot was scheduled to start at 8am, and the first ferry does not arrive at the island until 7:30 in the morning.
By 6:30am on the first day of the shoot, hairdresser Sharon was already creating fabulous hairstyles on each of the models. Sharon says the loves working with Recollections because she is free to create whatever hairstyle she likes for each of the girls. Her greatest challenge is to ensure that the styles don’t all look alike. “It’s like art”, she says. An on-site shoot can present greater problems than having to work in a hotel bathroom, where she relies on curling irons and hot rollers to keep the styles working. The most difficult is when she must do without electricity entirely. For this particular assignment, she had to work with three models, and create three different styles for each one. Sharon works with the photographer to ensure the hairstyle works with the shot he has in mind – like trailing curls down one side of the style for a profile shot. Sharon does not rely on wigs or hairpieces for her styles; all are created using the model’s own hair.

While the models were having their hair done, Susan and her assistant-daughter Sydney were boarding a horse-drawn taxi with all of the clothing for the shoot. The ladies at Recollections had carefully pressed and packed everything into four big totes for the trip, but the weight of all the clothes meant that they had to be ironed after her arrival on the island. Once at the site of the shoot, a rope clothes line held all of the outfits – each labeled with the model’s name and the number of the shot where the dress was to appear. It was Susan and Sydney’s job to ensure that all of the clothing and other props were available for each shot. This was Susan and Sydney’s first time to be on-site for a shoot, and her favorite part – in addition to the lovely setting and perfect weather – was interacting with everyone else. Susan said that models made it fun and photographer David and his dad Bill were so well organized that they accomplished lots of work in a very limited time.

The synergy of this collaboration is truly greater than the whole, as Recollections gets professional pictures for their web site, print, and other advertising, David publishes them on his site, and Bill uses the pictures as inspiration for fabulous art. Recollections wishes to especially thank Anne Levy, who let us do a portion of this (and past) shoots on her lovely property on the island. Anne also owns the lovely black Friesian horse “Lars”, who also appears in some of the pictures. Watch the Recollections “Photo Shoot” pages for the lovely new photos that have resulted from this trip!
(Author’s note: Mackinac Island is where the movie “Somewhere in Time” was shot. If you have never seen “Somewhere in Time”, we recommend you rent it for a lovely step back in time!)