Neðstikaupstaður, the eighteenth-century timber houses

On the spit that shelters Ísafjörður's harbour stands Neðstikaupstaður, a group of four wooden buildings put up in the second half of the eighteenth century when this was a Danish trading post. They are among the oldest houses in the country: tarred black timber, small windows, steep roofs, standing on grass with the fjord and its mountain walls on three sides.

As a backdrop the black timber is unusually good. It is dark enough to make any coat, dress or hair colour separate cleanly, textured enough to hold interest up close, and old enough that the frames feel rooted — a real counterweight to the enormous empty landscapes everywhere else in the Westfjords. Shoot tight against a wall for portraits, use the gable ends for symmetry, or step back so the whole cluster sits small under the mountains.

Light here is a mountain problem. Ísafjörður sits deep in a fjord under steep walls, and for a stretch of midwinter the sun does not clear them at all — the town famously celebrates its return in late January. What that gives you is weeks of long, soft, shadowless blue light which suits these buildings very well, plus a lit-at-night version. In summer the reverse: near-continuous daylight, with the best warm light late in the evening when the sun comes down the fjord.

Practical and courteous: the buildings house a museum and a well-known restaurant and are in use, so check opening hours and ask before shooting in doorways or close to windows; a session outside on the grass and the spit needs nobody's permission but benefits from not blocking access. The ground is grass and gravel, flat and easy. The harbour edge nearby is unfenced with cold water below, and in winter the whole spit ices — flat, gripped shoes, and care with children.