The Sel turf farm above the visitor centre

Sel is a preserved turf farm on the slope above the Skaftafell visitor centre: a row of gables set into banks of grass, dark timber fronts, low doors, and a short walk up from the car park. Behind it the ground drops away to Skeiðarársandur — the vast grey outwash plain — with glacier tongues coming down from the ice cap on either side. Small, warm, human buildings with the biggest landscape in Iceland behind them.

The contrast is the picture. Shoot tight on the turf and timber for texture and colour, then swing round so the couple stands with the whole plain and the glaciers running away behind. The buildings face out toward the plain, roughly south, so the fronts take light most of the day and the turf walls glow when the sun is low. Winter's short day sits at exactly that angle the whole time it is up.

It is also the shelter option in a place with very little. A session at Skaftafell often means a long walk to Svartifoss or Sjónarnípa; when the weather turns, or when the couple would rather not climb, Sel is ten minutes from the car and gives eaves, doorways and grass banks to work against. Rain is workable here in a way the ridge never is.

Respect the buildings: they are a heritage site inside Vatnajökull National Park, not a set. Do not climb on the turf roofs or the walls — the turf is fragile and damage is permanent — keep to the paths and grass, and check the park's rules on drones and on any commercial photography before the day. The walk up is short but the slope is grass and slick when wet; flat shoes for the approach.