Couples Photoshoot and Proposals on Madeira

How a couples session runs

The first ten minutes are for walking and talking.

After that I give one or two directions, then I keep shooting. Walk to that rock. Warm her hands. Most of what I keep happens in the gaps between those instructions, when you have already forgotten the last one.

There is no pose list and no standing at the edge of a cliff for the shot. If a spot needs you to be somewhere unsafe to work, I pick a different spot.

Where couples sessions happen

Thirteen couples and proposal sessions are published on this site. Five of them are at Praia Formosa, which is ten minutes from the centre of Funchal and needs no driving day.

The rest spread out. Noah and Laura shot at Seixal in July, on the black sand under the cliffs. Anatoliy and Olga used two spots in one evening, the old town and the harbour lighthouse. Slava and Anastasia took a full island day in May and covered the Fanal laurels and Seixal in the same session.

Fanal is about an hour from Funchal on the north coast road, and Seixal about fifty minutes. Praia Formosa is ten minutes.

Light and time of day

We always agree on the start time individually, depending on the goals of the shoot and your wishes. Less often I also shoot at sunrise: I simply prefer the evening light myself.

In December the gold starts pulling across the water around five and gives you roughly forty usable minutes. Saket and Sneha had their session two days before Christmas. In midsummer you are still shooting past nine, and dinner happens late that day.

There is a month by month breakdown if you are still choosing dates.

The half hour after the sun goes down is not the end of the session, it is the part I would keep if I could keep only one. It needs a booking that reaches past sunset rather than stopping at it, and what happens in that window is worth reading before you choose a start time.

Honeymoons

Most couples who book me are on honeymoon, and they almost never say so in the first message. It comes out in the car. The planning is different from a proposal: nothing has to stay secret, and the only real constraint is that the trip is already full.

Edin and Arita took two hours in September and covered the laurel forest at Fanal in cloud, then the black sand at Seixal through sunset and the half hour after it.

What to wear, how much of the island fits into one evening, and when to send your dates: the honeymoon session page goes through it. If you are combining a mountain location with a beach, the order and the driving matter more than the choice of places, and that arithmetic is written out here.

Proposals

Six of the thirteen were proposals, and they run differently. There are three ways to do it, and the choice changes which places work.

Most often you book it as a normal couples session. She thinks it is a photoshoot, comes dressed for it, and at some point you propose. Mike and Amelie went that way at Praia Formosa in May. The other way is that I am already at the spot, and it looks as though I am simply a tourist photographing the scenery. That is how Sam and Catherina worked at the Guindaste viewpoint, and Lucas and Isabela at the same place in October.

When you go down on one knee, keep track of where I am standing and turn so the two of you are side on to me. Then both of your faces, the ring and your partner’s reaction are in one frame, and you get the strongest photo of the day. The full mechanics are here.

What the packages include

Short is 250 EUR: one location, about an hour, 25 edited photos. Emi and Oli took that at Praia Formosa in March.

Classic is 450 EUR: one or two locations, up to two hours, 50 photos. It is what most couples book, including Avi and Nata and Rylie and Abby.

Extended is 650 EUR: up to three locations, three and a half hours, 150 photos. Two locations outside Funchal in one evening need it.

If you have never been in front of a camera

People who are shy with a camera come to me fairly often. For them I suggest simple actions, a little like acting exercises, that let you live the moment for real. He lies down with his head on her knees so she can stroke his hair. They look into each other’s eyes and think about their own dreams and secrets. They kiss.

Simple but romantic situations, easy to do for people who have perhaps never been photographed before. They give excellent results, pleasant to look at and pleasant to live through during the session. It is not done so much for the frames. It is part of life itself and of living the experience inside a trip to Madeira.