ON THEIR OWN ISLANDJoana & Darcio

Joana and Darcio are Madeiran, so this was their own island, photographed at the hours most people are asleep for.

As a Madeira wedding photographer I usually meet couples who are flying in for the first time. This was the other way round: two locals who grew up here, trusting me to plan them a day across the whole island. Sunrise on the wild eastern tip, midday in the old laurel forest, sunset high on Pico do Arieiro. It took the best conditions I have ever had here and every hour of planning I could give it.

One thing before you scroll: the sunset at the end of this post is the best I have ever photographed on this island. Make it to the bottom.

Sunrise on the wild edge: Ponta de São Lourenço

We started before dawn at Ponta de São Lourenço, the bare red peninsula that runs off the eastern end of the island into the Atlantic.

It is the wildest place on Madeira, all ochre cliffs and sea stacks with the water on both sides, and at sunrise it is usually empty. The light came up soft and pink over the headlands, then hard and gold through the rock. Joana and Darcio have driven past this place their whole lives, and standing in it at first light, dressed up, with nobody else around, they saw it new.

Midday in the laurel forest: Queimadas and the Boqueirão

By late morning we had crossed to the green north, into the Queimadas forest and the misty valleys around the Boqueirão.

Parque Florestal das Queimadas sits in the laurisilva, the ancient laurel forest that covers this side of the island, with red-roofed thatched houses among the trees. We worked through the forest and up towards the Miradouro do Boqueirão as the cloud came down over the mountains. For a while the whole island was grey and wet and quiet. I did not yet know the cloud was about to do something I have never seen it do.

The sunset at Pico do Arieiro

We drove up to Pico do Arieiro for the last of the light, and the cloud broke.

I have watched a lot of sunsets on this island. This was the most remarkable one I have ever seen. The cloud that had sat on us all afternoon dropped below the summit, and the sky and the cloud went orange and then deep pink, brighter than I have seen either go. The whole ridge lit up around Joana and Darcio. I have no photograph that quite holds the colour, and no honest way to promise it again, because conditions like that are not something anyone can plan. What I can tell you is that I would give a lot to stand up there and try it with another couple. If you want to chance it with me, I am an email away.

That was one day on Madeira, sunrise to sunset, end to end. If you are looking for a Madeira wedding photographer for something like it, whether you are flying in or you live here like Joana and Darcio, I would love to plan it with you. There is more of the island here: Justine and Jack above the clouds, and Styrmir and Heiðdís, Faye and Laurie and Klara and Siddy.