Rauðasandur's red sand

Rauðasandur — Red Sand — is the beach that breaks every expectation of Iceland's coastline. Instead of black basalt grit, ten kilometres of crushed scallop shell run in bands of pink, apricot and rust, shifting colour with the angle of the sun and the state of the tide, with the Snæfellsnes peninsula and the glacier Snæfellsjökull visible across the bay on a clear day.

Low tide is the state to shoot. The sea pulls back across a huge shallow flat and leaves a mirror of wet sand threaded with tidal channels — put your subjects small in that expanse and the reflections do the composition for you. As the tide fills, a lagoon forms behind the sand bar and the palette warms; both versions work, but they are different pictures, so check the tide table before you fix a time.

Behind the beach, the black timber church at Saurbær stands alone against the green slope, red-roofed and fenced, the only building in the frame for kilometres. It is a working parish church on private farmland — photograph it from the road or the track, and do not enter or lean on the fence.

Getting down is the commitment: Road 614 leaves Route 62 and drops in a steep, narrow, unpaved series of hairpins with blind bends and passing places. It is a summer road; check conditions first, take it slowly, and give way uphill. There is a small seasonal café at Franska kaffihúsið near the beach, and nothing else — no fuel, no shop.