The lower shoulder of Bláhnúkur

Bláhnúkur — the blue mountain — rises straight above the campsite, and the path up its shoulder gains height quickly. You do not need the summit: twenty to thirty minutes puts you on a slope where the valley, the black lava and the banded ridges beyond all sit in one frame, with your subjects on an obvious line of path.

The ground here is loose scoria, so the climb is more work than the distance suggests, and it is the one part of a Landmannalaugar session that needs proper footwear on both people and photographer. What it buys is the view nobody gets from the flats — and, on the way up, a series of stances at different heights so the shoot progresses rather than repeating.

Wind increases with every metre of height and can be serious on the shoulder; a long dress becomes a sail. Turn back early rather than late if the weather is moving in, and keep to the path — the slopes here erode easily and the reserve asks for it.