Húsavíkurkirkja, the wooden church above the harbour

Húsavíkurkirkja is the building everyone photographs in this town and rightly so: a tall wooden church built in 1907, painted white with green trim and a spire out of proportion to the small harbour town beneath it. It stands on a rise a minute from the waterfront, and behind it Skjálfandi bay opens out toward the snow-lined Kinnarfjöll ridge.

For a session it is the anchor. The church is small enough to fit whole in a frame and detailed enough for close work — the boarding, the windows, the green-painted doors all give texture. Frame it from below on the slope so the spire rises against sky; step back toward the harbour for the version with boats in the foreground; or go tight on the doorway for a portrait with the timber as backdrop. The front faces roughly west, so afternoon and evening light lands on it directly, and in June that light lasts until nearly midnight this far north.

Winter is the other reason to come. Húsavík sits just below the Arctic Circle, so December gives four or five hours of low, coloured daylight and long blue evenings; the church is lit at night, and on clear nights the aurora sits over the bay behind it. This is one of the easiest aurora foregrounds in the north because it is in town — you can wait indoors and walk out when the sky clears.

It is an active parish church: services, weddings and funerals happen, and the interior is a working space rather than a set. Check nothing is on before booking, ask about photography inside rather than assuming, and keep sessions to the grounds and the slope. Practical notes: the ground around it is grass and paved path, easy in any shoes; the slope ices in winter; and the wind off Skjálfandi is cold even in July.