The horseshoe from the west bank

Goðafoss is not tall — about twelve metres — but it is wide, and the Skjálfandafljót comes over it in a horseshoe split by a rock in the middle, so you get two curved curtains of water instead of one drop. The west bank has its own car park and a path along the rim, and from there the falls sit head-on, filling the frame from edge to edge with the highland plain running away behind.

This side is the one to use for portraits. The path runs level with the lip, so the couple can stand with the whole horseshoe behind them without anyone needing to climb anything; the ground is gravel and easy, and there is room to work at several distances. A wide lens close in gives the wall-of-water frame; a longer one from further along the rim compresses the two curtains and the rock between them. Spray is moderate here compared with the south-coast falls — you will still wipe the lens, but nobody gets soaked.

Light: the river runs north, and the falls face roughly north-east, so the sun comes across them from the side for most of the day and lights the water without blowing it out. Evening is the strongest hour in summer, when the late sun sits low over the plain; in December the four or five usable hours are all low-angle, and frost around the rim turns the whole scene white and blue. Winter also brings ice shelves at the edges — beautiful, and a reason to stay well back from the lip.

Practical and safety: the rim is unfenced in places and the rock at the edge is wet and polished. Keep several metres back, especially with a group, and do not step onto the flat rocks that look walkable near the water. In winter the paths and steps ice hard; spikes are worth carrying. The car park is right off the Ring Road, which makes this one of the easiest good waterfalls in Iceland to fit into a day.