The bridge over Jökulsá and the ice run

The Jökulsá is the shortest river in Iceland — a few hundred metres of channel carrying meltwater and ice from the lagoon out to the Atlantic — and Route 1 crosses it on a single bridge. From the bank beside the crossing you can see the whole system at once: the lagoon behind, the channel running fast with ice in it, the surf ahead, and the black strands on either side where the blocks end up.

It is the establishing frame of the location. A long lens along the channel stacks moving bergs into a queue; a wide one from the bank puts the couple in the foreground with the whole ice run behind them. On the outgoing tide the ice moves visibly, so a slower shutter turns the water to silk while the blocks blur past — a technical frame worth one or two attempts. Seals hunt the channel and surface unpredictably, which is a bonus and not a plan.

Light: the channel runs roughly north to south, so both sunrise and sunset put colour behind the ice rather than on it, and both work. Winter's low sun sits sideways across the water for the whole short day; June's midnight sun gives the same effect with nobody around.

Safety here is about the water and the road, not the waves. The channel current is fast and the banks are undercut and unstable — stay well back from the edge and never step onto ice in the channel, which is moving and rolls. Route 1 is the main road round the country and carries lorries at speed: park only in the marked areas, cross away from the bridge, and never set up on the carriageway or the verge for a photograph. If the wind is high, this exposed crossing is one of the first places it becomes unpleasant.