Grótta lighthouse at Seltjarnarnes

Grótta sits at the tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, fifteen minutes' drive from downtown: a small white lighthouse on an islet joined to the shore by a causeway that only exists at low tide. The beach around it is dark sand and wrack, the views run open to Faxaflói bay and Esja, and the light out here — free of the city's buildings — is the best Reykjavik has.

Two different sessions live here. In summer, golden hour over the bay: walk the shoreline, use the causeway's wet sand for reflections, keep the lighthouse small on the horizon or large behind the couple with a longer lens. From September to April this is the city's aurora spot — dark enough for the lights, close enough that a session can wait on the forecast and drive out when the sky clears.

The tide is the practical constraint that actually matters: the causeway floods on the rising tide, and people get stranded on the islet every year — check the tide table and stay shore-side unless you know your window. The area is also a protected bird-nesting zone with access restrictions roughly May to mid-July; the shoreline before the causeway still works then. Wind is near-constant — plan hair, dresses and tripods for it.