Reykjanestá as a photo destination.

Reykjanestá as a photo destination.

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Reykjanestá cliffs

Reykjanestá is located on the south-western tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula, close to Keflavík airport and the Blue lagoon. It’s fairly easy to find by following the signs. You have to drive through an area with a geothermal power plant, which as a bonus has some cool compositions if you want to photograph pipelines and steam.

Furthermore there’s a few rather large hotspots, where you can see boiling mud and steam fiss out of the ground. On your way, you pass a lighthouse and you know you’ve arrived when there’s a gravel parking lot with a human-sized bird statue.

Reykjanestá is rich on birdlife but I visited the area to photograph the amazing cliffs which points straight out of the water and makes for some great compositions. If you go wide you’ll be able to capture most with a 16-35 mm on a full-frame camera.


Since this is an area for seascapes you should be very aware of the tides. Both for safety reasons but the tide also has a huge effect on your composition, where some of the big stones are surrounded by water during high tide and gives more separation from the surrounding stones.

If you're more into video I've created this series on YouTube called "Photographing Iceland", which is a work in progress. If you want to buy any of my pictures as beautiful high-quality prints check out my Society6 page.

Check out these guided tours to the Reykjanes peninsula: Wonders of Reykjanes, Reykjanes Private Tour and Reykjanes Peninsula Round Trip Tour.

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