The top of the falls, 527 steps up

A steel staircase of 527 steps climbs the eastern side of the falls to a platform right on the lip. From up here Skógafoss stops being a wall of water and becomes a river turning a corner: the Skógá comes down out of the highlands in a green trough behind you, tips over the old sea cliff, and in front the coastal plain runs flat and grey to the Atlantic, with the Vestmannaeyjar islands on the horizon on a clear day.

It is the frame that shows where you are. Put the couple on the platform with the plain behind them for the wide establishing shot, then turn inland: a few minutes further along the Fimmvörðuháls path the river makes a run of small falls and pools with nobody around, and that stretch is where the unhurried half of a session usually happens. The cliff edge faces south, which means the sun sits behind you through the afternoon and the light on faces is even.

Seasons change the plan completely. From late May to July the sun barely leaves the sky and you can shoot up here at eleven at night with the plain still gold; in December there are only four or five hours of usable light and the staircase can be sheeted in ice, when it is closed or simply not worth it — check conditions before committing the couple to the climb.

The honest warnings: it is a real stair climb, ten to twenty minutes, and there is no shelter at the top. Wind on the lip is stronger than at the car park and gusts here are what blow hats, veils and lens caps into the gorge. Keep back from the unfenced edge beyond the platform, and change into the good shoes at the top rather than climbing in them.