This article is part of the Complete Guide to Photography in Iceland
Iceland is one of the great photography destinations, and has been thoroughly explored by some incredible photographers. Hundreds of potential locations have been discovered and captured, and there is still an enormous amount of landscape to explore.
The challenge of photographing Iceland is the number of potential places you could visit, and how to fit so many options into the time you have available. It’s impossible to see even a fraction of the landscape, and the only way to arrange a photography trip to Iceland is by prioritising the photography you want to do and the places you might be able to reach.
This is a list of great photography locations in Iceland, and I’ve focused on destinations that are easy to reach at all times of year. These are the photography highlights, where there is room to explore and capture a variety of images. Many photographers have visited these sights, but they are among the best photography locations in Iceland for a reason and a great place to start if you are planning your first Iceland photography trip.
If you need more information, I have a Photography Travel Guide to Iceland, full of advice about planning your visit and with details of more than 200 photography spots.
Vestrahorn
Check out my Complete Guide to Photography at Vestrahorn
For many photographers, Vestrahorn is the highlight of Iceland. From travel brochures to screensavers, images of this mountain are now everywhere, and it has become one of the most recognisable peaks in the country.
Vestrahorn (the mountain) overlooks Stokksnes (the peninsula), and you hear both terms used interchangeably to describe this area. This is close to the ideal landscape photography destination: Vestrahorn makes a beautiful main subject, separated from its surroundings, and the landscape around the peninsula is full of variety, including a black sand beach, dunes, a reflective lake, and a long road to use as a leading line.
Vestrahorn lies in a remote corner of Iceland, so this area experiences an incredible variety of weather. It can get extremely windy, and the sand causes chaos for photographers attempting to stay upright and protect their equipment in the wind. However, the weather frequently changes, and even the worst conditions can change in minutes.
Vestrahorn is a significant photography location, and you can spend many days here exploring the possibilities and watching the light and conditions change. It's easy to underestimate how much you can discover at Vestrahorn, and you should dedicate at least half a day to this location.
When to go: Vestrahorn is accessible all year round, and the atmosphere of photographs from Vestrahorn are very different in the summer and winter. The mountain faces south, making it the ideal location for sunrise or sunset. However, the weather and light changes often, and you can capture great images at any time of day. Vestrahorn is also one of the best places in Iceland to capture the aurora, which often appears directly above the mountain.
Practicalities: Vestrahorn is located 5km down a gravel track off Route 1, which you can drive in a normal vehicle. At the end of the track, you arrive at the cafe, where you must buy a ticket for the barrier at the entrance to the Stokksnes peninsula. You can get a ticket from a vending machine at any time, and the barrier is in operation 24 hours a day. The machine will give you a printed QR code to scan at the barrier.
Eystrahorn
Check out my Complete Guide to Photography at Eystrahorn
Eystrahorn is another distinctive mountain, easily separated from its surroundings, with a diverse landscape that reveals more compositions the longer you stay. Eystrahorn is almost a partner location to Vestrahorn, and many photographers even prefer this mountain for the quieter and slightly less explored foregrounds.
Eystrahorn is full of variety if you spend the time to explore, and it experiences the dramatic weather changes that also appear at Vestrahorn. The terrain and changing light make this a great location for repeat visits, and you may want to spend 2-3 hours in this small location.
The landscape around Eystrahorn is a smaller version of the Stokksnes peninsula, and it's a fantastic opportunity to explore and be creative with the camera. There are fewer visitors this far from Reykjavik, and many only stop for a quick photograph before continuing along Route 1.
When to go: Eystrahorn is a great location for sunrise and sunset, as its south-facing position allows the peaks to catch the light at either end of the day. Between September and March, the face of the mountain catches the first and last light of the day.
I don’t recommend this location for the aurora because Eystrahorn blocks much of the northern horizon. The Northern Lights do look spectacular at this location, but they need to be very strong to reach over the mountain.
Practicalities: Route 1 passes right in front of Eystrahorn, between the mountain and the small peninsula, where you'll find the best photography. It would be easy to miss the turn onto a small gravel track, and the junction is almost hidden on a bend in the road.
The access road is a gravel track, passable in a normal car, and a short distance from a parking area on the peninsula. There are no entrance fees or barriers at Eystrahorn, but also no facilities for visitors, so come prepared if you want to spend a long session at this location.
Jokulsarlon
Jokulsarlon is one of the most unusual geographic features in Iceland and one of the best photography locations in the world. Jokulsarlon is fed by water and ice running off a large glacier, and the lagoon is almost 250 metres deep and 8km wide, giving the impression that you are standing at the edge of a vast sea of icebergs.
Only a narrow strip of land separates Jokulsarlon from the open sea, so ice in the lagoon flows directly into the ocean, and animals (such as seals) frequently travel into the lagoon to explore. Jokulsarlon is a popular tourist destination, not somewhere you’ll be alone with the camera. However, it is five hours from Reykjavik, making it a busy (but not crowded) location.
You can explore a long way around Jokulsarlon for different angles on the lagoon, but there are no designated paths once you get a little way from the cafe and parking area. It’s impossible to reach the glacier on foot: there are no paths, and any route across the landscape would be long and divided by icy streams. However, you can take tours of the lagoon by boat, explore ice caves, or go hiking on the glacier with organised tour groups which leave from around the cafe.
The landscape around Jokulsarlon is incredible, but it can also be a challenging area for photography, and you'll have to work to capture a striking image from the low ground surrounding the lagoon. Walking around the lagoon gives you some different angles on the icebergs, and there are separate parking areas west on Route 1 that allow you to access other points around Jokulsarlon.
When to go: Jokulsarlon is great for photography at any time of day or night, and it’s easier to capture the textures and subtle colours on an overcast day. The surrounding mountains catch the light at sunrise and sunset, and they can both be great times to visit. It’s also a good location for watching the aurora, because it has such an open view of the sky, and the landscape can reflect the colours of the lights.
Practicalities: For such an unusual landscape, Jokulsarlon is incredibly easy to access. Route 1 crosses a narrow bridge directly over the channel that connects Jokulsarlon to the sea, and the parking area for the lagoon is just off the main road.
You don’t need a ticket to visit Jokulsarlon, and parking is free.
Diamond Beach
Ice from Jokulsarlon washes up on the long, straight coastline next to the lagoon, creating Diamond Beach, one of the photography highlights of Iceland. Diamond Beach and Jokulsarlon are connected locations, but you should allow enough time for a lot of photography at both.
The most popular type of image to explore at Diamond Beach uses a long shutter speed to create patterns of sea foam around ice on the beach. It’s easy to spend hours here experimenting with settings and the flow of the waves to explore what textures emerge in your image. To get the most out of this location, you’ll need a sturdy tripod and neutral density filters, which will give you options for your shutter speed on a bright day.
If the sun does come out, you’ll have the opportunity to capture light through the ice. In winter, the sun sits low over the ocean for most of the day, and it’s usually possible to get behind a block of ice and explore the patterns that appear when the sun shines through it.
There is often so much ice on Diamond Beach that you can explore along its length, looking for the perfect piece of ice at just the right distance from the crashing waves. It’s a great location for creative photography, and don’t underestimate how much time you might want to spend here.
When to go: One of the best features of Diamond Beach is that it works in different weather conditions. I have seen some spectacular sunrises and sunsets at Diamond Beach, but it is a flexible location, and there is always something to photograph.
The position of Diamond Beach makes it the ideal location to capture sunrise or sunset in the winter, and also a good aurora spot. Scenes of the beach give you the perfect way to capture compositions featuring a lot of sky, and the ice can reflect the colours at the beginning or end of the day.
Practicalities: Diamond Beach is next to Jokulsarlon, with a large, free parking area just off Route 1. The beach is divided by a channel of water emerging from the lagoon, and you can visit both sides of Diamond Beach.
The ice can wash up on either side of the channel, and changes frequently with the tides and currents. There is ice most days, but be sure to check both sides of the channel if you arrive on one side and find it empty.
Skogafoss
Skogafoss is a spectacular waterfall on Iceland’s south coast, which is easy to access and explore from different angles. This is a popular sight, with plenty of visitors and tour buses exploring the falls during the day. However, Skogafoss is also easy to visit at unusual times when the falls are quiet, and it's a favourite spot among photographers.
A short walk from the parking area takes you to the base of the falls, where you can approach the pool underneath Skogafoss and appreciate the scale of this waterfall. You can access positions around the river as it flows downstream, so there are opportunities to investigate different foregrounds and angles leading to the falls.
To the right of Skogafoss is a set of stairs which leads to a viewing platform above the falls. You can see for miles across the plains of the south coast, though there are very few features in the landscape from this position. However, the view down over the waterfall is worth seeing for another perspective on its size.
In the winter, this is as far as you can go. However, when the snow has melted, a path along the river above Skogafoss runs far into the landscape and past dozens of waterfalls as it heads into the mountains and ice fields above. This is the beginning of one of the great one-day hikes in Iceland, the Fimmvorduhals Trail, which runs from Skogafoss to Thorsmork in the Highlands.
There is another short walk close by, leading to a waterfall called Kvernufoss, which you can access at any time of year. If you have more time at Skogafoss and want a shorter hike, this is a great second feature of the location.
When to go: The large cliffs around Skogafoss block the light at sunrise and sunset for most of the year, and there are better places to spend the beginning and end of the day. The best conditions on location can be an overcast day, where you can concentrate on texture and detail without any large shadows in the scene.
The deciding factor on when to visit Skogafoss may be the other visitors, and you’ll find it a lot quieter in the early morning or late at night.
Practicalities: Skogafoss is just off Route 1 and near a small community with a hotel, restaurant and a museum. There are no entrance or parking fees, and you can visit the falls at any time of day or night.
Solheimasandur Plane Wreck
The Solheimasandur plane wreck is the remains of a US Navy plane that ran out of fuel over the south of Iceland in 1973 and crash-landed on a large plain of black landscape near the coast. It’s an unusual tourist destination, and the abandoned aircraft is fairly small. It’s also relatively inconvenient to reach, with no other attractions nearby, not even an exhibit about the crash. Yet it has become one of the most famous sights in Iceland.
The plane is a great subject for atmospheric photography that captures the sometimes barren landscape of Iceland. The bright wreckage stands out against the surreal backdrop of endless black gravel, and the sight of this empty terrain is made more dramatic by the addition of the aircraft.
The Solheimasandur plane wreck looks good in all conditions, though most people hope to capture dark and moody images from the barren landscape. That means this location suits flat light, with overcast or even rainy days working best for photographs of the scene.
You can capture the plane from every angle with no restrictions on your movement. For a location with only one subject as far as the eye can see, it has surprising variety, and you can develop your photography by exploring the effect of different positions and lenses on the atmosphere of your image.
The biggest challenge is avoiding other visitors in your shots, and it’s unlikely you’ll have the plane wreck to yourself. At unusual times of day, you may find that only other photographers are visiting the site, and you can collaborate on staying out of each other's way. However, during the middle of the day, people will be crawling all over the aircraft, and you may have to take multiple images to combine and remove them.
When to go: The Solheimasandur plane wreck sits in the middle of a flat, open landscape, catching the light whenever the sun is up. However, you might want to consider the atmosphere you want to create in your images in deciding when to go. A colourful sunrise or sunset could be wasted here, and the best atmosphere can be when the cloud is low and heavy.
If you are in Iceland in winter, this can be a good spot to watch the aurora because the sky is so open, but it’s a tricky walk in the dark, and you’ll need good shoes and a head torch.
Practicalities: There is a large, free parking area off Route 1 and a further 4km walk across the plains to the wreck. There is a marked path (but no lighting), and it’s a flat and easy walk, but with uneven ground making it a harder journey than it appears.
During the day, a shuttle bus runs from the parking area to the plane every 30 minutes, which you can book online or when you arrive.
Black Church at Budir
The black church at Budir might be the most photographed church in Iceland, outside the cathedral in Reykjavik. Its black exterior is unusual, and the contrasting white doors and window frames make it a striking feature in the landscape. The design, colour and texture of the church make it stand out among the sparse surroundings, and this is one of the most surprising and rewarding photography locations on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
The only building near the black church is the large hotel which runs the church as a wedding venue. The hotel is cleverly located down a hill, so the church feels isolated in the landscape from every direction.
This isn’t a quiet location, and the black church is so popular on social media that it has become a bucket-list stop for many visitors to Iceland. However, you can explore the church at any time of day or night, and it works well for photography in any conditions. In many ways, the black church suits rainy, overcast weather most, and that’s when you are more likely to find it deserted.
The church works from any angle, and it’s a great place to be creative and explore your approach to composition. This minimalist scene of a single subject among a barren landscape can help stretch your creativity as you investigate the effects of different angles and positions. Although there are only a few features on location, it’s surprising how many composition options you can find here.
When to go: This might be the most versatile location in Iceland, and you can always create something at the Black Church in any light and conditions. The church is on a flat plain, and you can capture it in any direction at sunrise and sunset. On clear nights in winter, this also allows you to move around the church and include the aurora wherever it appears in the sky.
Since you can find a creative option for any conditions at the black church, the best approach is only to avoid the middle of the day when you are more likely to meet other visitors.
Practicalities: The church has a small, free parking area on location and is very easy to access off the main route through the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. You don’t need a ticket to explore the church and surroundings, though there are no facilities nearby, so plan for food and drink on location.
Kirkjufell
Kirkjufell is one of the most recognisable mountains in Iceland, and a popular sight with visitors and photographers. It's a distinctive peak just offshore near the small town of Grundarfjordur, and you can capture a range of different images here.
The famous composition of Kirkjufell includes a set of waterfalls as a foreground to the mountain. The falls are a short walk up from the parking area and accessible at all times of year, though they can get very slippery in winter when some of the positions around the falls become dangerous to reach. There are two drops in the river, and you can capture images with both, exploring vertical and horizontal compositions to create variation in your photographs.
It’s hard to capture something original at this spot, as Kirkjufell has become a fixed stop on every photographer’s journey in Iceland. However, it’s a complex composition and can be great for practising balance in your images and fine-tuning your position and focal length to include the waterfall and mountain in a good composition.
If you have the time to spare, you can spend several hours exploring the landscape around Kirkjufell and trying different compositions. A farm track passing over the top of the falls continues along the hill, where you’ll find a great angle on the bay, the mountain and the ocean. The view out to sea encompasses a range of mountains and folds in the coastline for a beautiful perspective of the landscape.
To the east of the waterfalls is a large bay with a walking trail leading around the shore. Sometimes, you can catch reflections in this bay for a mirror image of the mountain, and in the winter, ice can form on the water, creating patterns and shapes to use in the foreground.
When to go: Kirkjufell looks great in different conditions and at different times of day, and the optimum time will vary through the seasons as the sun’s position changes. In the summer, the sun rises and sets behind the mountain, but it faces Kirkjufell in the winter for great light on the peak. At night in winter, Kirkjufell is one of the best places in Iceland to photograph the aurora.
Practicalities: Grundarfjordur can be a convenient place to stay on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, with easy access to a variety of photography locations. Kirkjufell is so close to the town that you can arrive quickly to capture it in different light or with aurora overhead if you stay nearby.
Parking around Kirkjufell has changed as its popularity has grown, with a paid main parking area replacing several informal areas that clogged up the road and damaged the landscape.
Reynisfjara Beach
Reynisfjara is a stunning beach and one of my favourite photography locations in Iceland. Separated from the town of Vik by the mountain Reynisfjall, the beach features a long curve of black sand and a perfect formation of sea stacks just off the coast. There are also basalt columns in the cliffs where you can capture textures and patterns in the rock.
The first thing anyone should learn about Reynisfjara Beach is to look out for the waves. Sneaker waves are common along Iceland’s south coast (named for their tendency to ‘sneak up’ on unsuspecting visitors), and Reynisfjara Beach is notorious for waves that look like any other until they break and surge up the beach. I’ve seen people knocked off their feet and drenched at this spot many times, and tourists have died at Reynisfjara Beach after being swept into the ocean.
Most images from Reynisfjara focus on the sea stacks just off the coast. These look good in all conditions, and this is a great location for an overcast or rainy day where you can create atmospheric images focused on shapes and patterns. You can try wide compositions featuring the sea stacks as part of a larger seascape image or use a long lens to get close and pick out details in the rocks.
In the other direction, Reynisfjara beach stretches along a black sand bar for more than 2km for an other-worldly, barren scene that looks great in flat conditions. At this end of the beach are the cliffs and sea stacks of the Dyrholaey Peninsula, which you can also visit but requires a separate journey.
When to go: Reynisfjara Beach is the ideal location for sunset, as the light comes in from the west and catches the rocks around the beach. It also works for sunrise in the winter, when the light can appear behind the sea stacks and light up the wet stones in the foreground. However, you can find good images at this beach in any conditions, and you might want to prioritise coming at an unusual time to avoid some of the other visitors at this popular location.
Practicalities: Reynisfjara beach is a short drive from the town of Vik and easy to access even in the middle of winter. There’s a large, free parking area on location, plus a cafe and toilets.
Dyrholaey Peninsula
The Dyrholaey Peninsula lies at the other end of Reynisfjara Beach, though it’s not possible to walk between them, and you need to make the long drive around the bay to access them both. It’s easy to access Dyrholaey even in winter, but parts of the peninsula sometimes close during the spring/summer at certain times because it is a nature preserve and has additional protections for nesting season.
At the end of the peninsula you’ll find a lighthouse, cliffs, sea stacks and a natural rock arch. You can get down to the water in some places, or photograph from the cliffs above. This is one of those great photography locations without a fixed composition, with plenty of features to investigate and use in compositions.
Dyrholaey looks back over the black sand bar of Reynisfjara Beach from the west, and this is the closest this location comes to having a famous composition. There’s also a sea stack at this end of the beach, and you can capture the whole curve of this sand bar from a convenient lookout on the cliffs.
On the western edge of Dyrholaey is a lighthouse and another set of lookouts over the coastline to the north. There are lookouts on different parts of the cliffs and some sea stacks offshore, with a beautiful natural arch from which the peninsula gets its name (Dyrholaey means “door hill island” in Icelandic - Dyrholaey used to be an island).
When to go: The arch can look spectacular in the right light, and this might be the best sunset spot in this part of Iceland if you visit outside of summer, when the sun sets further to the south and lights up the cliffs.
However, there is so much variety at Dyrholaey that you can find compositions in any conditions and light. During the winter, the sun rises and sets over the ocean, and both can be beautiful in different parts of Dyrholaey.
Practicalities: There are large, free parking areas at Dyrholaey and public toilets on location. It’s a short drive from Route 1 on a paved road that’s accessible all year round if there has not been too much recent snowfall.
Finding the Best Photography Locations in Iceland
The locations in this article are well-established spots for photography, where you’ll find good facilities and many options to be creative with the camera. There are hundreds of images online of these scenes, which can help when developing our own photographic style, giving us a sense of what’s possible and then the chance to try out the compositions for ourselves.
The disadvantage of such popular locations is that it’s hard to create something original. These places have been photographed at all times of day in all weathers, and some incredible artists have explored every possible angle on every feature.
However, they make a great starting point for a photography journey in Iceland, and there are plenty of other locations nearby. Basing a trip around these locations is a good start to your planning, and you won’t need to explore much further to find some less photographed spots as well.
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