Photographes à Goðafoss

Goðafoss folds the glacial Skjálfandafljót river over a broad horseshoe of dark rock, and the water runs an improbable glacial turquoise that needs no editing. The name is the story: around the year 1000, the lawspeaker Þorgeir returned from the parliament that made Iceland Christian and threw his pagan idols into this waterfall — clients love the tale, and it sells the proposal frame. Both banks are worked: the west side descends close to water level for wide frames with clients small against the full curve, while the east side's basalt shelves give elevated, cleaner compositions and hold the better light in the evening. The falls face north, so summer's late sun — and around the solstice the midnight sun itself — drops directly into the frame behind the water, the one alignment photographers cross the country for. In winter the horseshoe grows ice cauliflower and the spray freezes the paths: spikes on, and mind the unfenced edges. It is five minutes off the Ring Road between Akureyri (35 minutes) and Mývatn, free, and busiest from late morning — take the ends of the day, as everywhere.