A couple of weeks before the 15th July 2015 I was fortunate to be approached by a PR company on behalf of Swiss Air International Airlines to see if I wanted to fly to Montreux, Switzerland for 2 days 1 night to experience Montreux Riviera and the Montreux Jazz Festival.

I have to be honest I had never heard of Montreux or the Jazz Festival. However I had heard of Switzerland as it was on my top 5 places I wanted to visit in the world.

So with a big smile on my face I eagerly agreed to this trip.

As with all of my trips, camera kit and clothing is essential. I checked the weather to see what it would be like and was completely lost for words (which is unusual) by how hot it was going to be.

The weather was going to be in it's mid to late 30ºc. WOW I guess I better pack some shorts then, as I started to remove my trousers I already packed in my suitcase.

On arriving to Switzerland I couldn't help but be in awe by it's magnificent landscape.

I flew to Geneva, where I would meet my beautiful host Martina from Swiss Air International Airlines and 2 others Sabi & Jonathan who were Bloggers & Writers for various magazines and who were joining me for this trip.

From the airport we would then travel first class on a train to Montreux. 

This gave us just enough time to introduce ourselves to each other and we knew then we would all get along and enjoy this amazingly brief stay in Montreux.

The Fairmont Le Montreux

A short walk down the hill from Montreux train station was our Hotel, The Fairmount Le Montreux Palace a luxurious 5 Star Hotel and one of the biggest in the Swiss Riviera. It's also situated right next to Lake Geneva and right behind the Montreux Jazz Festival which I will be attending that evening. 

A short morning walk by Lake Geneva looking back at The Fairmount Le Montreux Palace

After receiving my room keys I was keen to check out the room, I was expecting good things, I wasn't disappointed. What a stunning room and an awe-inspiring view!! Definitely a view I could never tire of.

My Room and extremely comfy bed.

My balcony view overlooking The Montreux Jazz Festival, Lake Geneva & the French Mountains.

Once the bags were in the room and I had nosed around as much as I could, it was time for a bite to eat in one of the amazing restaurants inside The Fairmount Le Montreux Palace.
The food was exceptional and the restaurant was decorated with style, elegance but still staying modern.

Claude Nobs

Because of my extreme lack of knowledge about Montreux and the History, it kinda made the trip even more positive as I felt like I was being spoilt by information I knew nothing about.
We took the Cogwheel Train from Montreux which climbed around the mountain and where we stopped to visit the founder of Montreux Jazz Festival Claude Nobs. Unfortunately Mr Nobs died in January 2013 after a tragic skiing accident the month before. His house and surrounding buildings which he owned have now been opened up to the public to view. (Make sure you book an appointment).
It was great to learn so much about the great man and it was blatantly obvious of his immense passion for music.

Cogwheel Train

View from the Cogwheel Train.

Claude Nobs House

Montreux Jazz Festival

Alt-J performing an awesome set.

Sunrise Lake Geneva, Montreux.

After a great night and little sleep, I couldn't resist in waking up to go and capture a sunrise.
I would of regretted it if I didn't, I could always catch up on sleep when I returned home.
Researching Montreux before I left the UK, I knew there was a stunning castle nearby called Castle Chillon and this was my destination for my sunrise shot.
Like with most of my images I walk to my final location as you always find little gems along the way.

Great find walking next to Lake Geneva, this vintage speed boat. Even better when the sky popped with colours of pink, purple & yellow.

Canon 5D MK II | Canon 24-105mm Lens | Manfrotto BeFree Tripod | Remote | Exposure 0.8secs | f/18 | Focal Length 24mm | ISO 100.

Setting up at Castle Chillon, Lake Geneva, Montreux, Switzerland.

Canon 5D MK II | Canon 24-105mm Lens | Manfrotto BeFree Tripod | Remote | Lucroit Filter Holder | Lee Big Stopper | 0.6 Hitech Soft Grad | Exposure 320 secs | f/18 | Focal Length 65mm | ISO 100.

Who fancies running of here with a BIG splash? Lake Geneva looks very inviting. Canon 5D MK II | Canon 24-105mm Lens | Manfrotto BeFree Tripod | Remote | Exposure 8.3 secs | f/14 | Focal Length 47mm | ISO 100.

Saint-Saphorin

After a successful sunrise shoot and a breakfast fit for royalty at The Fairmount Le Montreux Palace we headed off towards the stunning village of Saint-Saphorin. 

This village looks like it's been un-touched for hundreds of years. It was so peaceful and with so much character. Winding cobbled streets, ancient stoned houses with that traditional swiss look. Postcard material for sure.

If their is one thing you must do when visiting the Swiss Riviera and that is to book a wine tasting visit to one of the many vineyards that cover these beautiful hills. 

I highly recommend Blais Duboux a very nice gentleman and passionate wine maker who is a 17th generation family member still producing some of the finest wines in the world.

Mr Duboux's passion came through clearly as he allowed us to sample many of his wines. I personally never knew Switzerland produced wine and after tasting the Blais Duboux range it's a wine I'm always going to look out for.

Mr Duboux spoke about the history of the family, how he makes the wine and the future of the Duboux legacy.

He did this from the garden of his house overlooking his vineyards rolling down towards Lake Geneva. We were sat underneath a shaded area to keep us from the blazing sun, fed rustic breads, meats and fine wines. For me this encapsulated a european lifestyle and I honestly didn't want it to end. Probably glad it did though as it could of got very messy with all that smooth easy to drink wine. 

Most definitely my favourite moment of my trip (which is difficult) and I highly recommend tasting the white wine "Calamin". So so good!!!

Not a bad view overlooking Saint-Saphorin, Lake Geneva and the French Mountains.

The only way to taste wine, great company, delicious food, amazing views and the BEST Wine!!

So the time to go had finally arrived, after an epic 2 days I completely fell in love with the Swiss Riviera and Montreux Riviera in particular. I definitely will be visiting again and hopefully longer next time to see so much more.

Book your tickets now with Swiss Air International to visit this magical place, oh and book Business Class if you can as we travelled back business, I now know what all the fuss is about ;)

Finally a HUGE thanks to Swiss Air International, Montreux Riviera, The Fairmount Le Montreux Palace, Montreux Jazz Festival & Blais Duboux for making this a unforgettable experience!!

Manfrotto, Cotswold Outdoor & Lucroit 

Your support means a lot!

Ice on Jökulsárlón Beach

So next thing I had to do was to see if my sponsors could help me get kitted out with some new equipment and clothing for this epic adventure. I also took with me the same kit I took to Alberta, Canada. Look at my previous blog for that list.

As always my sponsors were so happy to help. The awesome guys at Cotswold Outdoor supplied me with some amazing kit. I needed some clothing that would keep me warm and dry as I knew the conditions would be challenging and forever changing.

• Mens Berghaus Helvellyn Waterproof Pants.

• The North Face Mens Peak Guide Jacket

• Mens Rab Neutrino Endurance Jacket

• Mountain Equipment Starlight III Sleeping bag (Sold Out).

• Mountain Equipmet Wet & Dry Kit Bag 

• Petzl Nao 575L Headtorch

The Berghaus waterproof trousers were really good. They were very easy to put on, especially wearing boots. The legs had zips running the full length of the outer side to make it easy to put on and off.

The North Face Peak Jacket was a great final layer to wear. The pockets were perfect to carry so many important things such as lens cloths, filters and my phone.

The Rab Endurance Jacket was my "go to" Jacket. I wore this for most of the trip. So warm and very comfortable.

The Mountain Equipment Sleeping Bag was something I really enjoyed climbing into, perfect for those nights when we didn't have any heat in our camper van.
After my recent trip to Canada I realised that I needed a large holdall and not a hard shell suitcase. I always over pack and my suitcase was taking up too much valuable weight. So this large 140L bag was perfect. I also liked that it had an inner compartment to put all my dirty washing in.

Last and certainly not least, the Petzl Head torch. For a torch that is charged via a USB it really did pack a punch. It was intelligent as it altered its brightness to the changing conditions with an amazing battery life.

My sponsors Lucroit sent me 3 filters to try out. Filters are a huge part of my photography and help create some amazing images using them.

The one I used the most was the Formatt Hitech Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 Soft Graduated Filter. This was such a great filter. Perfect to help darken the sky and make the clouds more defined and dramatic. With it being a soft grad it didn't show up much if it encroached over a mountain tip like a Hard Graduated Filter would.

The next filter I used was the Formatt Hitech Firecrest IRND ND3.0. A very nice filter but one I dont think I've mastered correctly. When stacked with some more filters it does create more noise than my Lee 10 Stop does but less colour casting. Definitely more practice with this one.

The last filter I got was the Formatt Hitech ND 0.9 Reverse Filter. I've never used a reverse filter before but its always been a filter I wanted to try. It's a filter that is used for sunrises and sunsets. The way it works is the darkest section of the filter starts from the middle and fades as it goes up the filter. This ensures that the darkest part of the filter is over the Sun when its at its lowest. Regrettably I only used this on a handful of occasions but definitely one I will use again and again.  

• Formatt Hitech Firecrest IRND ND3.0

• Formatt Hitech Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 Soft Graduated Filter

• Formatt Hitech ND 0.9 Reverse Filter

My new sponsors Manfrotto were happy to help me and at very short notice. They supplied me with a smaller tripod and backpack.

I've been using Manfrotto since I began my journey into photography, so to have these guys supporting me was a great honour.

• Manfrotto Pro Light Camera Backpack

• Manfrotto 190 Go Aluminum Tripod

• Manfrotto 498RC2 Ball Head

I also had my Manfrotto Aluminum 190 tripod with me and the same 498RC2 Ball Head which is the tripod and Ball Head I use most of the time.

The backpack was perfect for what I needed. It held pretty much all my equipment, including:

So as you can see quite a lot to carry. I took all this on the plane as hand luggage. It was very heavy but the backpack felt like it was up for the job. My previous Backpack was a Manfrotto Professional Backpack 30, unfortunately I found this quite uncomfortable to wear on my back as the rubber feet on the base of the bag nearer to my back rubbed against my back and caused sores.

However this bag Manfrotto Pro Light Camera Backpack was one of the best bags I've worn. Comfortable and easy to use. The waist band is a must when the bag is heavy especially if you're walking all the time, it helps distribute the weight from off your shoulders. Also make sure you tuck all loose adjustment straps away, if you don't, when its windy you may get loose straps flicking up into your face (I learned a lesson their...Ouch). 

I also liked how the shoulder straps can be tucked away behind the back cushioned part.

You can also remove one of the shoulder straps to have just one going diagonally across your chest, perfect for when the backpack is lighter.

I also liked the top compartment. It was easy to access my filters, holders and remote from here. However I did think the top part of that compartment would have given me more confidence if it was made with a more rigid shell for better protection. Similar to the Manfrotto Professional Backpack .

The Manfrotto 190 Go Aluminum Tripod wasn't my first choice of tripod I asked for, but at very short notice this was all they could get to me.

It was a very smart little tripod. Compact but still quite heavy. It was sturdy enough to hold my Canon 5D MK III and 70-200mm lens without having to much movement which I was quite impressed with.

However I am more of a quick clips on the legs kinda guy. I find them quicker and easier to use. This tripod had rubber twist locks which are ok, but when it's cold and you're not wearing any gloves, I can find these quite painful for my hands. But this is personal preference. It's a great little tripod to take on mini adventures, strong, reliable, compact and perfect for outdoors.

Overall I was very happy with what Manfrotto sent me. I'm looking forward to working with them more in the future and trying out some more kit.

I will do my best to try and post pictures in the order they happened but some might be slightly out. Also this is a general overview of my favourite moments in Iceland.

We were picked up from the airport and taken to our Camper Van hire. We were shown around the van and it was at this point we had a bomb shell dropped on us. You can not use the showering facilities inside the camper van as we are still in winter season. Now considering we have been in talks with them for weeks, they never once mentioned that we weren't able to use the shower inside the camper van.

We asked them "where do we shower" and the response was "Camp Sites dotted around Iceland". We felt disappointed as we didn't budget for this, but we had to accept that this would be the only way.

However 1 day in we also realised that most camp sites were still closed and weren't open until May (4-5 Weeks away).

Getting clean seemed like it was going to be more difficult than we anticipated. 4 men sharing in such a small space, we knew being clean was an absolute MUST!!!! HAHA.
We also needed to know where to buy groceries and other items. The website I Heart Reykjavik helped us pinpoint stores around Iceland.

Here is Me, Ben, Jonny & Mark all hyped up and ready to explore Iceland in our Camper Van.

We had a rough guide of places we wanted to visit and this was also extended after our friend and super talented photographer Stian Klo from Lofoten Tours helped add locations he knew we would like.

First on our list was Kirkjufell. Kirkjufell is a 463m high mountain on the north coast of Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula, near the town of Grundarfjörður. It's a well photographed location but looks different every time due to the ever changing weather conditions Iceland has.

On the way to Kirkjufell, like anywhere in Iceland, you always find great places to stop and shoot. Me and Ben found this great spot, it was along the side of the road on Highway 54.

The sun was going down and we still hadn't arrived at our destination Kirkjufell, so we had to get a wiggle on.We just about made it here in time for sunset. We pulled up into the carpark and we ran with our tripods, cameras and bags to the top of the hill as the light was fading fast. WOW that nearly killed me (note to self, must get fitter) ha. One of the best comps is over looking a waterfall with Kirkjufell in the background.

So my Manfrotto 190 Series tripod was set up, camera attached, 24-105mm lens fitted, remote inserted, my Lucroit filter holder fitted to my lens with my Lee 0.3 hard grad filter fitted and pulled all the way down to act as a full 0.3 filter and stacked with my Formatt Hitech Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 Soft Graduated Filter which was positioned over the clouds and the tip of the mountain.

Even though the mountain is the main focal point I actually manually focused on the ground just on the other side of the waterfall.

My settings were:

Aperture: f/14

Exposure: 6 Seconds

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO: 100

Edited in Lightroom 5

I always take 3-6 different exposures to hopefully capture the right exposure. The image may look ok on the screen on your camera but that is known to lie A LOT!!! It helps to check your histogram to see how your exposure looks. The graph will give you a better idea at how much exposure you need for your next shot. i.e. more or less. Also remember if the light is fading your exposure will have to increase and the opposite for sunrise. If it's getting brighter your exposure will need to be shorter.

After the sun had set we headed to the town next door Grundarfjörður for something to eat and a place to park up with our camper van for the night.

We learned a very harsh lesson that night.

1) Make sure you park into the wind or find somewhere to shelter from the wind so you don't rock about all night like you're on a rough ocean.

2) Park on firm flat level ground so you don't spend most of the night trying to keep yourself in your bed.

3) There is heating in the van for a reason, HEAT. Use it and don't feel you only have to use your sleeping bag and duvet. Even though they kept me very warm, the condensation was quite bad so to have the heating on that kind of eliminated that.

Harsh lesson's and it still took a few days before we really took all these points on board.

The following morning we awoke to fresh snow on the ground and excitedly headed back to Kirkjufell as we knew it would look different now the landscape had changed with the snow.

Camera setup Kirkjufell, Iceland.