Photo Sessions on Madeira When the Weather Looks Bad

People write to me with the same worry. They open a weather app, see rain over Madeira for the day of their session, and ask whether we should move it.

Almost always the answer is no. Not because I am being brave about it, but because that forecast is describing a different part of the island than the one we will be standing in.

One island, several weathers at once

Madeira is 57 kilometres long and rises to 1,862 metres in the middle. That ridge splits the weather in two. Cloud comes in from the north, hits the mountains and sits there. The south coast, where Funchal is, often stays dry under the same sky that is dumping rain on the north.

The reverse happens too. I have driven out of a grey Funchal morning, come through the tunnel to the north coast and found open sun over Seixal.

Forty minutes of driving changes the weather more than waiting three days does. That is the part people book around and it is the part a single forecast icon cannot tell you.

Grey light is not a downgrade

An overcast sky is a softbox the size of the island. No hard shadows on faces, no squinting, no blown highlights on a white dress.

Jason’s family came to Seixal at seven on an overcast August evening. Dark water, soft cliffs, two girls in pale dresses. Those photos look like a film still, and they would not look that way in bright sun.

Sam and Katerina had flat grey sky for their proposal at Miradouro do Guindaste in April. Nothing harsh, nothing competing with them. I would take that sky over hard sun at four in the afternoon on any day of the year.

The light people fear is the light I choose when I get to pick.

Fog is the reason to go, not the reason to stay home

Fanal Forest works because of fog. It rolls in off the north coast and fills the gaps between the laurel trees, and the trunks stop being trees and start being shapes.

Slava and Anastasia got the full version in May: thick fog, wet hair, moss dripping. On a clear blue day Fanal is a nice field with old trees. In fog it is the reason people fly here with a dress in their luggage.

Same logic on the peaks. Pico do Arieiro sits above the cloud layer on most mornings, so the rain you see from your hotel window is often the thing you would be standing on top of. It is not guaranteed. Some mornings you drive up and arrive inside the cloud rather than above it, and then we go somewhere else.

What actually stops a session

Wind with rain in it. That combination is unworkable: nobody can stand still, hair goes everywhere, and I am wiping the front element every thirty seconds instead of watching your faces.

Steady rain alone I can work with for short spells if you are willing to get wet. Wind alone is fine in the right spot. The volcanic outcrops at Praia Formosa break the wind well enough for close portraits, which is why I move there when the coast gets rough.

If the day is genuinely unworkable, we move the session to another day in your trip. I would rather rearrange than hand you photos taken in conditions I would not accept myself.

How the decision actually gets made

I watch the forecast in the two days before your session and I pick the location on the day, not weeks ahead. That is why I ask for flexibility on the spot rather than the date.

If you are booked for the north coast and the north is socked in, we shoot the south. If Funchal is grey and you wanted the old town, grey is fine for the old town. The plan bends, the date usually holds.

One May evening at Praia Formosa I photographed a proposal that had sun, drizzle and cloud in it. Same session, three kinds of light. The couple got frames they could not have planned for.

What to bring when the sky looks uncertain

Shoes you can walk on wet rock in. Most good spots are volcanic and they are slick after rain.

A layer for the north coast. It runs cooler and windier than the Funchal forecast suggests, and people underdress for it constantly.

Something to tie hair back with, then decide with me on the spot whether to use it. Wind in hair reads well in photographs more often than people expect.

If you are willing to get wet, say so before we start. It changes what I offer you and it usually produces the best frame of the session.

Booking around the weather

Book the date you want. Leave the location loose. That is the whole trick on this island.

Message me on WhatsApp with your dates and I will tell you honestly what the season usually does and where we would go if the sky misbehaves. More on couples and proposal sessions and family sessions, or read what each month actually looks like in the best time of year for photos on Madeira.