AZORES ELOPEMENTKasia & Kostek

July 16, 2026

Kasia and Kostek eloped to São Miguel, the biggest island in the Azores: nine green volcanoes anchored in the middle of the Atlantic, a few hours from America, two from Lisbon, and somehow still half empty.

If you are planning an elopement and São Miguel is not on your list yet, it is about to be.

In black and white

In 2008 I saw a Ragnar Axelsson photograph: one man, alone on a beach, in black and white. That single frame is the reason I picked up a camera, and it has been my north star ever since. Everything I photograph is, on some level, chasing what that picture did with almost nothing.

The technical truth: I shoot RAW and JPEG side by side. The JPEGs come out of the camera already black and white, untouched and unedited, with no safety net. That is what you are looking at on this page. The RAW files hold all the colour, and any frame here can become a colour photograph the moment a couple asks. The black and white is for me. The RAWs are for you.

The wooden whale lookout on São Miguel under a heavy Atlantic sky Kasia and Kostek walking a stone wall above the Atlantic on São Miguel, Azores Embracing above the coastline of São Miguel during their Azores elopement Bride with her bouquet in the patchwork hills of São Miguel

The island

I have been to São Miguel twice, and both times I flew home already planning the return. Fields stitched together like a quilt thrown over old volcanoes. Hydrangea hedges for road barriers. Cedar forests, fern ravines, hot springs, sea cliffs, and weather that runs through all four seasons in an afternoon. It is the closest thing Europe has to Iceland with the volume turned down and the temperature turned up, and almost nobody is there.

If you are thinking about an Azores elopement, here is my professional opinion: yes. And if you want company, I would be on the next flight.

Kasia walking through the tall grass on São Miguel, AzoresKasia and Kostek on a ridgeline above the fields of São Miguel
The couple beside a wooden lookout on the hills of São Miguel Kasia and Kostek walking the coastal road above São Miguel’s north shore

The day

Kasia and Kostek did it right. White linen and lace, no schedule worth mentioning. We walked ridgelines and stone walls, sat in among the cedars, crossed ravines full of ferns taller than the groom, and stood above a crater lake with nobody else in sight. By evening the Atlantic had turned to silver, the cows came out for the sunset, and the two of them danced on a cliff edge because there was nobody around to stop them.

Portrait among the cedar trunks in a São Miguel forestKasia wrapped in Kostek’s jacket in a cedar forest on São Miguel
Crossing a footbridge through the ferns on São Miguel, Azores
Portrait of Kasia among the ferns on São MiguelKasia with her face to the light in the Azores jungleKasia in the jungle light of a São Miguel ravine
Walking hand in hand through the forest light of São MiguelLooking down over the green coast of São Miguel
Leaping along old ruins above the coast of São Miguel
Following a highland trail on São Miguel, AzoresKasia and Kostek wrapped up against the Azores weather
Following the highland trail across São Miguel Kasia and Kostek above Lagoa do Fogo, the crater lake of São Miguel Heads together above a cove on São Miguel
Standing on the old weir between the cliffs on São MiguelKasia in the mouth of a sea cave on São Miguel, Azores
Climbing the lava rocks above the surf on São Miguel The couple inside a churning lava cove on São Miguel’s coast Black lava arches over the surf on São Miguel Windblown beneath a huge Atlantic cloud on São Miguel Sitting on the hillside above a silver sea, São Miguel Dancing on the cliff edge in the last light of an Azores elopement

Twelve hours on an island in the middle of the ocean. In black and white for me. In colour whenever they ask.

Holding hands among the cows at sunset on São Miguel, Azores

The Azores have been in the Journal before: Tawnie and Justin married on Terceira. If São Miguel is on your list too, say hello. I know a place.

And if you fall for the Azores the way I have, there is more to see: a wedding on Terceira, one island over.

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