A Photoshoot at Seixal Beach: What to Expect

I photographed six sessions at Seixal over the past year, four of them this summer. Three families, two couples and a solo portrait, from nine in the morning to the last light of the evening.

What Seixal Beach looks like

Seixal is one of the few natural sand beaches on the island, and the sand is black. Volcanic, fine, and it holds a mirror of water after every wave. Behind it the cliffs go up green and almost vertical, and in the evening cloud sits on them like a lid.

The bay is enclosed. Light bounces off the cliff faces and fills the shadows on its own, so faces hold detail even without direct sun. A breakwater calms the water, so children can stand in the shallows.

And there is a waterfall. A thin one, dropping straight onto the rocks at the far end of the sand, close enough to stand beside. Jamie and Rory’s teenagers finished their session under it.

Light at Seixal Beach through the day

Morning and midday. Early on the sun is still behind the ridge and the light comes in flat and even, the easiest light on the island to work with. It clears the ridge before nine and goes low and direct. This is when the beach is empty. Emilia’s solo session ran at nine on a September morning and she had the whole bay to herself, red dress against black sand.

Grey evening. When cloud sits low, Seixal turns moody. Dark water, soft cliffs, no shadows. Jason’s family came at seven on an overcast August evening and the photos look like a film still: two girls in pale dresses against a dark bay.

Golden light. When the sky opens, the low sun comes up the bay and the whole beach turns amber. Noah and Laura walked into the surf on a July morning with that light behind them, waves bursting on the rocks. It lasts about forty minutes.

With children

Kids want to be at Seixal. The sand is strange enough to be interesting, there is a waterfall to inspect, and the shallows behind the breakwater are calm on most days.

Cindy’s three, two boys and a baby girl, spent half their session digging and got sand everywhere it could go. Jason’s younger daughter did a handstand mid-session. Nobody asked her to.

Bring a spare set of clothes for anyone small.

What to wear on black sand

The ground here eats beige and pale grey. Strong colour reads: white, deep red, denim blue. Emilia’s red dress is the clearest example I have, and the white and cream that Jamie and Rory’s family wore worked the same way against the dark ground.

Go barefoot on the sand. Bring shoes for the boulders near the waterfall.

If you are willing to get wet, say so before we start. The best frames of Noah and Laura happened waist-deep, and that only works when nobody is protecting an outfit.

Practical details

The drive from Funchal takes about fifty minutes, over the mountains to the north coast. Add the travel fee or ride with me.

Parking is free at the beach and fills up on sunny weekends by late morning. Early sessions dodge that entirely. The north coast runs cooler and windier than Funchal, so bring a layer even when the city forecast says summer.

Next to the beach sit the natural lava pools. They are worth your swim after the session.

Booking it

A Short session covers Seixal properly: one location, an hour. Families usually take Classic for the extra breathing room with kids.

All six galleries: Noah & Laura · Cindy’s family · Jason’s family · Jamie & Rory · Emilia solo · Slava & Anastasia

More about the place itself on the Seixal Beach location page. Know your dates? Message me on WhatsApp and tell me morning or evening. More on family sessions and couples.