Fanal Forest

One of the oldest laurel forests in Europe. Trees that are centuries old, their trunks wrapped in moss, their canopies blocking the sky. Fog often comes in from the north coast and fills the gaps between the trees.

Late afternoons give the soft diffused light Fanal is known for. Clear midday is its own mood: direct sun through the canopy, sharper shadows. The sun usually only opens up here in the middle of the day.

The fog is the version everyone arrives expecting, and it is the one thing here nobody can promise. It comes off the north coast when it comes. Some mornings it holds all day, some mornings it lifts in twenty minutes, and some mornings it sits on the far ridge and never crosses the plateau at all. I shot a family here one October morning where the sky opened blue, the fog stayed parked on the ridge, and then moved in behind the treeline by the end of the session.

Trunks with hollows big enough to stand inside. Roots that curve out of the ground and make natural frames without being arranged. Fallen trunks lying across the grass.

The cows are on the plateau most days. In fog they read as shapes. On a clear day they are animals in a green field behind a portrait.

Practically: an hour from Funchal on the north coast road, paved the whole way, and you park at the top with no walk to speak of. The plateau is flat and open, nothing to climb, nothing to fall off. I shoot here late in the day. The fog is often there in the evening as well, and there are fewer people. The guided groups come in the morning: spending an evening this far from Funchal does not suit their working day. Bring a layer more than you think you need. Fanal sits at 1,150 metres and it is consistently colder and wetter than whatever Funchal is doing at the same hour.

Three sessions from Fanal are on this site, all three in fog. Slava and Anastasia paired it with Seixal in one day, Edin and Arita did the same on their honeymoon in September, and Manuela's family came in October. It suits couples sessions and works for families with children old enough for wet ground.