Book a Kids Birthday Photoshoot
in the Westman Islands

Each photographer sets their own price for a photoshoot in the Westman Islands: every package on their profile shows an all-inclusive price, and nothing is added at checkout. Packages vary by duration and the number of edited photos — a short session covers the harbour and the cliffs above it, a longer one loops the island for Eldfell's red slopes, Herjólfsdalur and the puffin cliffs. Ferry or flight tickets, yours and the photographer's, are booked separately.

The Herjólfur ferry sails from Landeyjahöfn on the south coast and takes about thirty-five minutes. When weather or drifting sand closes that harbour — which happens, especially in winter — sailings are rerouted to Þorlákshöfn and the crossing becomes two and a half to three hours. Check the sailing on the day, book vehicle space well ahead in summer, and leave slack in the schedule. There is also a short flight from Reykjavík, and most photographers will meet you at the harbour or the airfield.

Roughly from May to mid-August, and the colony here is the largest in the world — the cliffs at Stórhöfði and along the southern coast fill with birds, and evenings are the busiest hours. Keep to the marked viewpoints, stay back from the burrows and the cliff edges, and use a long lens rather than closing in: the nesting ground is fragile and the drops are sheer. By late August the birds are gone and the island turns to storm light and empty roads.

The harbour entrance, where the cliffs close in and the ferry threads through — best shot from the quay or from the boat itself. The red cinder slope of Eldfell, half an hour up on foot, with the town and the 1973 lava field below. Herjólfsdalur, a green bowl of a valley ringed by cliffs. And Stórhöfði at the southern tip for open ocean, wind and puffins. Everything is within a few minutes' drive of everything else, which makes even a short session varied.

Every age works; the plan changes. First birthdays are about the parents and the setting — the baby in a snowsuit against a waterfall is a keepsake, and sessions stay short and close to the car. Ages three to seven are the golden years: old enough to be amazed by a geyser, young enough to show it without self-consciousness. Older kids and tweens want to feel like adventurers, so their sessions lean toward exploring — boardwalks, whale boats, the rift valley — with the birthday moment folded in. Tell your photographer the exact age and personality when booking; a five-year-old who loves puddles and a ten-year-old who hates posing get very different, equally good, sessions.

Then nobody asks them to. Our children's photographers don't run posing sessions — they run adventures with a camera present. A shy child gets space and a slow start: the photographer shoots the landscape, chats with the parents, lets the child decide when to get curious about the big lens. Iceland does the rest; it's very hard to stay withdrawn when the ground steams and a geyser is about to go. The birthday shots come from moments, not commands — the crown going on, the first look at the cake, a hand pointing at a whale. If a child truly has a rough moment, we pause, warm up, and come back to it. The gallery never shows the pause.