The hour that makes the photograph

Almost every couple who writes to me suggests the same time: eleven in the morning, or just after lunch. It makes sense on paper. You are awake, you are dressed, the day is ahead of you. It is also the only hour I would ask you to avoid.

At midday the sun sits almost directly overhead. It puts hard shadows under your eyes and nose, it bleaches the lagoon to white, and it makes everybody squint. The Maldives has some of the most beautiful light on earth and almost none of it happens at noon.

The two hours worth setting an alarm for

Sunrise here is early and quick — around six, give or take a few weeks either side of the year. For about forty minutes the light comes in sideways and gold, the lagoon goes glassy because the wind has not woken up yet, and the island is empty. No other guests in your frames. No boats on the horizon. I have photographed couples at six who had an entire beach to themselves and were back at breakfast by half past seven.

The second window is the hour before sunset and the twenty minutes after it. The gold is warmer, the sky does more, and the heat has gone out of the day. The catch is that everybody else has also worked this out, so the beaches are busier — which is why I plan where we walk rather than just when.

Blue is not a consolation prize

There is a stretch after the sun has gone — maybe fifteen minutes — when most people put their cameras away and walk to dinner. The sky turns a deep even blue, the villa lights come on warm against it, and the water holds just enough light to stay readable. It is my favourite part of the day and the least photographed.

If you only remember one thing: do not leave when the sun touches the water. The best frame is usually ten minutes later.

What to do with the middle of the day

The hours you are giving up are not wasted. They are the best hours for everything that happens under water or under a roof.

• Snorkel the house reef — midday sun goes straight down through the water and lights the coral properly
• A dive, for the same reason
• The spa, which is the one experience that does not care what the sky is doing
• A long lunch, then a flat two hours of nothing, which is the actual point of a holiday
• Sleep. You were up at half five.

The one exception

Overcast days. A thin layer of cloud over the Maldives is a softbox the size of the sky, and skin looks extraordinary under it. If you wake up to grey, do not cancel — tell me, and we will go out at ten instead.