Under the mountain — the road-side stance at Kirkjufell's foot

Everyone photographs Kirkjufell from four hundred metres away with the waterfall in front. Drive two minutes further along Route 54 and stop at the foot of the mountain itself, and the picture changes completely: the ridges run vertically out of the grass, the summit leans over you, and there is no waterfall, no queue and no arrangement to copy. It is the frame that gives the mountain its actual size.

Work it with a wide lens from low down so the ridge lines converge above the couple, or step back toward the fjord and use a longer lens to compress the flank into a striped wall behind them. The mountain's south face is the one you are under, so it takes light through the day and glows late; in June and July the sun swings far enough north that the flank stays lit until nearly midnight, and in December the low sun grazes the ridges sideways for the few hours it is up, which is the best they ever look.

This stance is also the quiet aurora alternative. When the falls car park is full of tripods on a clear winter night, the shoulder below the mountain is usually empty, and the peak's silhouette against a green sky works just as well without the waterfall in front of it.

Practicalities before the picture: Route 54 is a real road with real traffic, so use the marked pull-offs, park fully off the carriageway and keep the session on the seaward side rather than the tarmac. The grass and the lower slope are wet most of the year and the ground is tussocky — flat shoes for the walk, and no scrambling up the flank, which is steep, loose and has killed people who tried it without gear.