The tidal mirror under the mountain

When the tide drops, the sea leaves a shallow sheet of water across the black sand below Vestrahorn, and the mountain doubles in it. It is the reason photographers drive the length of the country for this beach: no foreground props, no crowd, just two people, a black mirror and a wall of peaks.

The working window is roughly an hour either side of low water, so a session here is planned on the tide table rather than the clock — your photographer will check it before proposing a time. Wind is the other variable and it is decisive: a light breeze ripples the film and the reflection is gone in seconds. On a calm day, shoot the mirror frames first and everything else after.

Stand back and low. From a crouch the water fills the bottom of the frame and the reflection reads at full height; from standing it flattens to a smear. Wellingtons or boots you do not mind soaking are worth having in the car, because the best stances are ankle-deep. And keep an eye on the incoming tide — the flats fill faster than they look, and the sand between you and the dunes is where the water arrives first.