The lower platform on the canyon lip

A staircase drops from the upper viewpoint to the level of the river, and a path runs out along the rock shelf to a platform a few metres from where the second step goes over. From there Gullfoss is not a view any more — it is weather. The ground shakes slightly, the noise makes conversation useless, and the spray comes at you sideways. It is also where the best photographs of people at Gullfoss are made, because the scale finally reads.

Shoot with the couple small against the wall of water, or close and backlit with the plume behind them. The rock shelf faces the falls with the canyon on one side, so there is a stance for both a horizontal that fills the frame with water and a vertical that stacks couple, falls and canyon. Light is soft here almost all day because of the spray in the air, so this is the part of a Gullfoss session that survives harsh midday sun.

The spray is the whole practical problem. Everything gets wet — lens, hair, coats — so this is a short, deliberate set: get in, work fast, wipe, retreat. Waterproof outer layers for the couple, and a change of clothing in the car if the session continues elsewhere. Wind decides how bad it gets; on a westerly day the platform can be unusable.

In winter the stairs and the shelf are often sheeted in ice and the lower path is closed — check on arrival rather than planning around it, and treat any closure as final. When it is open, spikes are genuinely useful. And the ropes exist because the canyon edge is undercut and the rock is wet: stay behind them.