WEATHER AND ALLClaudia & Deniz
Claudia and Deniz wanted one day that held the whole of São Miguel, from a sunrise on the crater rim to a lava coast by dark, and it was a fight for every hour of it.
São Miguel is worth going back to, and it would not take much to get me on a plane again. If you have found this page because you are thinking about an elopement, a wedding, or anything at all out on these islands, this is exactly who it is for. Write to me and tell me what you have in mind.
São Miguel is the biggest of the nine Azorean islands, a stack of green volcanoes in the middle of the Atlantic, and the weather there changes by the minute. The day started at sunrise on the Miradouro do Salto do Cavalo, high above Furnas, and ran right across the island: the botanical garden at Parque Terra Nostra, the old arches of the Aqueduto do Carvão, a crater lake at Lagoa das Éguas, the ruins of the abandoned Monte Palace hotel, and finally the coast at Ponta da Ferraria and the lava arch they call A Porta do Diabo. It was a fight from the start, wind and cloud and rain off the sea, and that is exactly why the pictures look like they do.
Sunrise on the Salto do Cavalo
Claudia and Deniz were up on the Miradouro do Salto do Cavalo before the sun, high above Furnas, waiting to see if the cloud would break.
It broke for about ten minutes. The sun came up under the cloud and lit the whole Furnas valley orange, and then it was gone again. You get windows like that here and you use them, so the portraits came quick, and then it was on to the next stop.
Parque Terra Nostra
By mid-morning they were inside the Parque Terra Nostra, out of the wind and into the green.
Terra Nostra is an old botanical garden with a rust-orange thermal pool at the centre of it and paths that run under giant tree ferns. It feels prehistoric, and it was the softest, warmest hour of the day. It also made everything that came after feel wilder by comparison.
The aqueduct, the lakes and the old hotel
From there the day ran across the island, chasing gaps in the weather from the Aqueduto do Carvão to the crater lakes.
The old arches of the Aqueduto do Carvão came next, then Lagoa das Éguas and the viewpoints over the crater lakes, and the ruins of the Monte Palace, an abandoned hotel that looks out over the water. The cloud never fully lifted; it just kept moving, and there was nothing to do but move with it.
The coast: Ponta da Ferraria
By the end of the day they were on the black lava coast at Ponta da Ferraria, in the full force of the Atlantic.
This is where it got serious. The swell was breaking hard on the lava, the spray came over the rocks, and there is a natural arch out there they call A Porta do Diabo, the Devil’s Door. Claudia and Deniz stood in all of it while the surf came apart on the rocks below them. They got soaked. So did I. They stayed in it until the light went.
That was one day on São Miguel, weather and all. If you want an Azores wedding photographer who will happily get rained on for the shot, you know where I am. There is more from these islands here: Kasia and Kostek’s São Miguel elopement in black and white, and a wedding over on Terceira.
