Selfoss

Twenty minutes' walk upstream from Dettifoss, the river spreads out and falls over a long, broken ledge in dozens of streams at once. Selfoss is only about ten metres high but far wider than it is tall, and it is the more graceful of the two waterfalls — a horizon of white water rather than a single hammer blow.

For photographs it offers what Dettifoss cannot: a low, wide composition with room to place people, far less spray, and usually far fewer visitors, because most stop at the big falls and turn back. The columns and ledges of the far bank give a natural line across the frame, and in the evening the light runs along the whole curtain.

The walk is on marked paths over uneven ground on either bank, easy in decent shoes and slow in a long dress; allow twenty minutes each way plus shooting time. Wind carries spray unpredictably here too, and the canyon edge is unfenced in places. In winter the paths are icy and often unusable, which is the season to make Dettifoss itself the whole plan.