Planning guide
Before your shoot.
Everything I tell clients the week before. Outfits, light, weather, what to actually bring.
If you read nothing else
Wear something you already love. Pick sunrise or golden hour. Bring two outfits. The rest is my job.
Everything below is detail for people who want to think it through. Skip to what matters, write on WhatsApp if something is missing.
01
What to wear.
There is no wrong outfit. There is only the outfit that fights the island, and the outfit that lets the island work for you. Most people stand in front of a suitcase the night before and think they have to solve this alone. You don't. Here is how I think about it.
If you want one line
Wear a big, quiet color you already own. Cream, oat, soft denim, dove grey. Add one warm thing small enough to hold in your hand: a scarf, a lipstick, the tan edge of a shoe. Stop there.
If you want the logic
Keep reading. Four ideas that make every outfit choice after this easier. Not just for this session. For any shoot, any light, anywhere you go.
How the light behaves
The island does half the work.
By six in the evening the light here is gold. Cream blooms on you. Skin warms. Rust deepens into fire. A white shirt becomes honey. Cool blues, on the other hand, go flat. The gold drains them. Black eats itself and gives nothing back.
Once you know what sunset does to fabric, half the decisions are already made.
Cream and pale blue at Praia Formosa. The light is doing the color work.
One rule, three parts
Sixty, thirty, ten.
The big, calm thing. A linen dress, cream trousers, a long skirt. It covers most of you and it does not shout. This is the foundation.
A layer or a contrast. Denim jacket, pale cardigan, a skirt under a top. Different from the base but still in the same family. It adds depth, not noise.
One small warm thing. A scarf, your lipstick, the tan edge of a shoe. Ten percent of the frame. That is all the color the island needs from you.
Against green laurel or dark volcanic stone, the accent that lifts the whole frame is warm. Terracotta, rust, burnt amber, mustard. The island is cool and green. Your ten percent answers with warmth.
A palette that always works here
Four colors. Mix them how you like.
Cream
The warm white that lives everywhere. Forest, stone, sand, sea.
Oat
Warmer than cream, quieter than tan. Linen in the sun looks like this.
Washed denim
The blue of an overcast ocean. Sits next to anything without a fight.
Terracotta
The ten-percent warm accent. One of these in the frame. Never two.
Or pick another set
Three palettes built from different corners of the island. Pick one, dress to it, and the frame does the rest.
Morning at Fanal
Fog between old trees, damp moss, a dry leaf on the ground.
Fog
Sage
Bark
Ochre
North coast
Bleached shell, the sea before a storm, wet basalt, a flash of copper.
Shell
Tide
Basalt
Copper
Funchal at dusk
Old town walls, warm lamps, the last sun on cobblestone.
Sand
Stone
Bark
Rust
Same rule in each: three quiet tones, one warm accent. Pick the set that fits where we're shooting.
One session, two frames. Cream dress, denim shirt. The sunset light itself is the ten percent.
What the island amplifies
Natural fabric. Linen, cotton, wool, silk. Matte finishes that absorb and return light softly. Colors that sit near the landscape: cream, oat, soft sage, slate, rust, terracotta. Anything that looks at home in an old stone house.
What the island pushes back on
Glossy polyester. It shines. It reads plastic on camera. Neons and jewel brights that yell louder than the cliffs behind you. Big printed logos. Pure black in gold light. Anything that looks right in a dressing-room mirror and nowhere else.
One more thing
If you want the bold piece, wear it.
A red dress. A rust linen suit. Something you bought specifically for this trip because it made you feel like yourself. If that is the piece, bring it. The only rule is this: let it be the accent, not the argument. Everyone else stays in neutrals. The landscape stays clean. Then the one strong color gets to do what it was made to do.
Wear what lets you forget the camera is there.
I have seen the "perfect" outfit ruin a session because the person wearing it spent the whole hour thinking about it. A slightly wrong outfit on a calm person always beats a perfectly styled outfit on an anxious one. Pick the thing that feels like you. The rest is my job.
Wear what you've already worn a hundred times.
02
When to shoot.
On Madeira, time of day matters more than almost anywhere else I have worked. The same location at 11am and 6pm are two different photographs.
Sunrise
Fanal, mountain viewpoints.
6:30 to 8:00am depending on the season. Fog in Fanal on many mornings. Clouds below Pico do Arieiro. No tourists, just light. An early start that is always worth it.
Midday
Old town, shaded streets.
Cobblestones, painted doors, market hall, cafés in Funchal Old Town. Hard light is unflattering on open ground but beautiful filtered through narrow streets. Works from 11 to 3.
Golden hour
Coast, cliffs, west-facing beaches.
Ninety minutes before sunset. Praia Formosa, Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol. The light is not a filter. It is doing real work on faces, fabric, water.
03
Families with kids.
Booking a family session is different from a couples shoot. The rules are simpler and the expectations are lower. Here is what I have learned from eighteen years of photographing families on the island.
One palette. Up to four colors.
Pick three or four quiet colors. Whites, creams, soft blues, warm beige, soft grey. Give each person a different mix within that range. Mom in cream, dad in pale blue, kids in white and denim. You look like a family, not a uniform.
Start with the hardest person to dress (usually a teenager or a toddler) and build the palette around them.
Do not coach the kids.
My job is to photograph what is actually happening. The running, the not-listening, the hand on a parent's leg. Please do not ask them to smile. Let them be bored, let them ask to leave. Some of the best frames come in the last five minutes, when everyone has given up performing.
Best time with small kids.
Morning, not evening. A two-year-old at 7pm after a day of travel is not a photograph. First hour after breakfast is the sweet spot.
How long we actually shoot.
With kids under six, plan on forty to sixty active minutes, even if the package is longer on paper. We move at their pace. You will not get more images by pushing.
Bring, don't overbring.
A small snack, water, one favorite toy. Not a bag of distractions. Less stuff means less to tidy out of the frame.
You do not need to perform. You need to show up.
04
What to bring.
Two outfits.
One safer, one more adventurous. I help you pick which one on the day based on light and location.
A light layer.
Cardigan, linen blazer, or wrap. Good if a viewpoint is cooler than Funchal. Reads well in photos.
Shoes you can walk in.
Some viewpoints are a short walk on uneven ground. Bring nicer shoes for close frames if you like, but walk in sneakers first.
A hair tie on the wrist.
Always. You will need it.
Water.
Especially for family sessions with kids.
05
If the weather turns.
Madeira has microclimates. When the north coast is in cloud, the south is often clear twenty minutes away. When Funchal is overcast, Ponta do Sol or Calheta can be in full sun. Part of knowing the island is knowing how to move with the weather.
A few real examples from last year:
- · Heavy cloud in Fanal at sunrise. We drove south and shot Praia Formosa in clear light thirty minutes later.
- · Rain forecast for Funchal all afternoon. We moved golden hour west to Ponta do Sol, dry the whole time.
- · Too much sun at midday on the coast. We went up to Fanal or the laurel forest where diffused light is the whole point.
I don't watch forecasts. They don't work here. Madeira's weather turns in twenty minutes, so most calls happen the morning of the shoot. We shift the location or move the time.
Light rain and heavy dark clouds are not a problem. Some of my favourite frames come from exactly that weather. If you're fine with a jacket and wet hair, we shoot. If a full storm sits on the island all day, we reschedule at no cost.
06
The morning of.
Eat something. Hydrate. Do not schedule anything demanding in the hour before we meet. You want to arrive calm, not rushed.
If you are doing makeup, less is more on camera, especially outdoors. Matte foundation photographs better than anything dewy in strong light. Skip heavy contour. Hair down and natural reads better than styled.
If you feel nervous in the first ten minutes, that is normal. Everyone does. It passes. We start with easy frames, not the big one.
Show up. Trust the light. I'll do the rest.
What is your next step?
Already booked
Send me your questions.
Outfits, timing, logistics. Anything that is not answered above. I usually reply within a few hours.
Ask on WhatsAppNot booked yet
See packages and pricing.
Four options from a short session to a full day on the island. Transparent prices, clear scope, no hidden fees.
Browse sessions