The warm stream

Landmannalaugar means the people's pools: where a hot spring meets a cold stream at the edge of Laugahraun, the water reaches bathing temperature and people have been getting into it for centuries. A boardwalk leads out from the huts to the shallow bathing stretch.

As a photograph it is steam, warm light and shoulders in water with a mountain behind — the human end to a landscape day. It works best in the evening, when the low sun catches the steam and the crowd thins. This is a public bathing spot, so a session here is quick, discreet and considerate of other people in the water rather than a staged set-up.

Plan for it properly: swimwear under layers, a towel, and somewhere to change (there are basic facilities at the huts, but they are basic). The stream bed is stony and slippery in places and the temperature varies from hot to cold within a few metres. Wet clothes plus highland wind is genuinely cold afterwards, so leave a dry set in the car and finish the shoot here rather than starting with it.