Stórhöfði and the puffin cliffs

Stórhöfði is the blunt headland at the south end of Heimaey, joined to the island by a narrow isthmus, and it holds two records: the highest measured wind speeds in the country and the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the world. From roughly May to mid-August the grassy cliff tops are riddled with burrows and the air is full of birds.

For pictures, the draw is the openness — ocean on three sides, the outlying islands and stacks in silhouette, and light that comes from everywhere. A hide near the top lets you photograph puffins without disturbing them; from the road and the marked areas a long lens does the rest. The couple frames work along the isthmus and the upper road, with the sea filling the background.

Take the wind seriously here. Gusts can open car doors against their hinges and knock a person off balance at the cliff edge, and the drops are sheer. Keep well back, hold onto anything loose, and be ready for the session to move to Herjólfsdalur if the forecast turns — which, on this headland, it does.