Been working on a little project the past few months. I’m in the process of setting up an online store/gallery dedicated to the stereographic images I make.

Click below to read the rest of this post..

To start off with I needed a name for the site. Calling it Stereographic Projections wouldn’t be very catchy. Thinking of something that would work and hasn’t been used before, turned out to be harder than I originally thought. I spent about a month trying out different names. I decided I wanted the word ‘pano’ to feature in it somewhere. I played with various combinations and eventually settled with Panodrop. Pano being short for panorama and drop describing the feel of the images. The way the logo looked was important too, with it being eight characters I could stack the two words on top of one another and it looked right. Also each word has an ‘o’ in it which works with the rest of the theme. The circle to the left derived from a combination of a lens and the shape these images produce. I wanted the logo to look clean, simple and bold.

Working with Paul and Stuart at Tribe we developed the logo and made a start on how the site could work. After a couple of brain storms we came up with a plan for the lay out. Above is the initial design of the home page. It has come on since this photo was taken. Developing our own ecommerce system has turned out to be quite a mission so the look of the home page may be entirely different to this..

Currently there is a simple holding page on the panodrop.com domain.

One of the things I was keen on doing was getting stickers made. I would use these every time I took a stereographic projection in the hope that people would see it and wonder what it meant, then check out the site. Above is the initial concept I had. I effectively wanted to get two stickers out of one. As far as I know this hasn’t been done (but it probably has). I thought having a donut shaped sticker might be quite unique therefore stand out, also it ties in with the logo nicely.

I did a bit of research, to work out who would be best at getting them produced, and eventually found out about the company awesome merchandise. I got in contact to see if it was possible to create a sticker of this sort. They said it was, so it was all systems go. I sent off the final designs and the stickers arrived the following week.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this one develops. I’ve been wanting to start this project for a long time and its good to finally get it going. Ill try and keep the blog updated with its progress.

I’ve known about this place for about 2 years and have been meaning to go check it out ever since. It’s one of the few remaining train tunnels in Nottingham, not filled in or blocked up..

Click below to read about this little adventure..

To start of with, here’s some copy pulled from Wikipedia about the location..

Mapperley Tunnel is a 1,132-yard-long tunnel, built for the Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension of the Great Northern Railway. This line ran from Colwick Junction in Nottingham to Egginton Junction in South Derbyshire. The route planned took the line through Mapperley via the Mapperley Tunnel built to avoid attempting to get the railway over the ridge. The tunnel was in use by 1875 but suffered a roof collapse due to mining subsidence on January 23, 1925. A length of roof about 12 yards long collapsed blocking the line with approximately 150 tons of rubble. Whilst repairs were undertaken traffic was diverted along the Nottingham Suburban Railway. The tunnel was repaired but the continuing effects of subsidence resulted in speed restrictions in the 1950s and closure on April 4, 1960. The Eastern Portal is still open and accessible and the tunnel itself is open to a point just West of the second air shaft (counting from the East). Beyond the second air shaft the tunnel has been filled with earth. The tunnel portal is on private property and permission should be sought from the owner before entering. A large quantity of rubbish has been thrown down the second air shaft creating an unstable pile in the tunnel which may collapse in the future causing injury to anyone present.

Train going through the old tunnel on the last day of operation.

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Here’s the location of the tunnel if any one’s interested.

Me and my mate Greg rode out towards Mapperley and along Arnold Ln. We walked across a couple of fields eventually coming to the old train route. We walked along where the tracks would have once been and came across this old bridge.

A bit further on we walked down into the valley leading to the tunnel entrance. There was this old burnt out car slowing being taken back by the elements.

Arrived at the tunnel entrance. The crumbling brick work was slightly worrying. I sent out a couple of texts, just to let people know where we were, in case this thing collapsed and we got trapped inside…

We used my 160 LED camera light to lead the way. It was pretty cold down here.

Ahead of us we could hear a strange noise, we discovered it was only a stream running under us.

Water coming through the old brick work.

A bit further a long I set up my tripod and got the Spyder Laser out.

We then came across an airshaft leading to the surface. Standing under it you could get a sense of how deep under ground we were. I finally made use of my Panosaurus 2.0 and took a stereographic projection. Using the LED light I ‘painted’ the tunnel while the shutter was open.

Eventually we came to the end. Someone had used the other airshaft as a bottomless pit. Although it wasn’t bottomless and the crap built up, until reaching the roof. The way it stacked up in such a neat pile was quite odd.

On the other side of the rubbish was a huge mound of rubble that led nearly to the top. I climbed up and walked along the narrow gap until reaching a dead end.

We then turned around and headed back out towards the light, which by this point (535 meters away) looked very distant!

Over all it was a fun adventure. I’m glad I finally got round to checking it out. If you fancy going here I recommend you bring a bright torch and expect to get your shoes muddy

This summer I finally made it to Outlook festival in Croatia. This post is a collection of photos and video I took while out there. There wont be much chat, as it’s hard for me to explain in words what it was like. What I can say is, it was one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life..

Click below and hopefully my photos and videos can do it some justice..

Above is the little video I put together from footage captured on my GoPro, iPhone and D90.

I wanted to put something together that showed that its not just a festival of night time party times, but in the day you can have fun with your friends in the amazing clear blue sea and 30 degree heat.

This video was spotted by the organisers of Outlook, they loved it, posted it their Facebook wall where it received massive positive feedback. Not only that, they said that I had won a prize for it. Turned out I have two press pass tickets and a backstage photo pass for next years event! A little overwhelmed with that outcome. Cannot wait to do it, I have already started thinking of ideas I can try out there.

Most of the festival is located in the old 18th centaury Fort Punta ruins. This makes the atmosphere feel quite special. The deep, dark, heavy bass music and the deserted fortress seem to go hand in hand.

On the last night there was a pretty spectacular storm. The sky was like a strobe light. I have never seen anything like it. Luckily I had my time-lapse equipment with me so I set it up and captured the above video.

I also put this little stereographic projection video together. I’ve been meaning to try this for a long time. This photo seems like a good one to test it on. The results are rather interesting.

So this was a pretty shot post, there’s soo much I could have gone into..

If you want to see more pics I recommend heading to my Outlook 2011 Flickr Set

If you want a more personal and detailed account of events head to my daily photo project.

This summer I decided to embark on little project. I wanted to build a fixed gear bike. I’m familiar with bikes and how they’re put together and have spent a fair bit of time upgrading and replacing parts, but I’ve never built a complete one. My original plan was to take my old Create Fixie and replace the frame and a couple of other components. This is what happened at first but it soon escalated with me buying a completely new bike and spending a small fortune. The result however makes it all worth while. I now have my very own unique machine.

Click below to see close up shots and further detail about the build..

The first thing I purchased was the frame. I spent a couple of weeks searching though many different styles and brands. I decided I wanted a modern design, light weight aluminium frame. I came across this, the Cinelli Vigorelli, a track frame from an Italian company. The tubing is triple butted meaning its thinner in the middle and thicker at the joints, so its rigid and light. When the frame arrived I couldn’t believe how light it actually was. The forks were even more surprising with them being super light carbon fibre.

Shot looking at the front forks of the bike.

Choosing the right peddles was important. I did quite a lot of searching and couldn’t make up my mind. It was on the Amsterdam trip with the 5th floor guys when I noticed a couple of them had the new BLB pedals and straps. Once I was home I had a chat with Peter, one of the guys that works there, and he sorted me out with a set. These peddles are great because they’re super deep, holding your feet in tighter, so it feels like you have more control over the bike. I went for plastic cages because the metal ones I had before were destroying my shoes and dug into my feet.

Before I was riding the gear ratio 44:17. That was getting way to easy, and made going down hill a little mental. So I upped  it to a 48:16. This means I can go faster but the down side is it produces only one skid patch on the back tyre, therefore I will need to rotate it round so I don’t wear a hole through it. I picked up this light weight, 165mm, Miche crank set for around £100.

Choosing the saddle was a bit of a mission too! There’s so much choice and I wasn’t really prepared to fork out mega bucks on it. I ended up getting this, the Charge Spoon. The reviews seemed really good and for the price (£25) I didn’t have much to loose. I actually find it rather comfy. Not as good as my MTB seat but better than the one I had before.

The Seat post is a Cinelli Vai XL that I got for £20.

Right.. this stem was a real challenge to get! I ordered it four times (from different places) online only to later receive emails saying it was out of stock. One order on eBay went through but it was lost in the post! So while I was on the Amsterdam ride I spotted it at one of the bike shops we visited. So I got it there and then. I wanted this particular stem because it was short and its named ANT! very fitting with the DigitalAnthill theme .

I was going to buy a set of Profile Design Airwing OS handle bars online then luckily I found that my mate was selling his old pair. Still in pretty good nick and only £10. They kinda remind me of ant feelers…

The brake lever is one of a pair of Tektro RX4.1 Aero leavers I got off eBay for about £15. Having it in this position is fairly odd but it means there’s more room on the handle bars. The bar tape is just black Easton Cork.

The bird is the Colu
mbus tubing logo. As for tyres, on the back I went for a harder wearing Continental Gatorskin and on the front I have a Blue Continental Ultrasport.

The wheel set was the last thing I got for the bike. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on these either, I ended up getting a very good deal. I spotted this set of Navigator Pista wheels for around £180. I liked them because of their deep V profile, light weight, black but also have a fixed, fixed flip flop hub on the rear, meaning you can have two different gear sizes on either side. I saw that on the Dolan site they were selling the set for £99, I thought it must be a mistake, so I ordered them expecting an email the next day saying there’s an error on the site, but nope they arrived the following day!

Shot of the rear drop outs.

Shot looking from the back of the bike.

I purchased this blue half link chain in Amsterdam for around £15. Although it looks nice and allows you to get the back wheel super close to the frame, in reality its not very practical. I’ve been riding with it for about a month now and its rather noisy and is heavier than a regular chain. I’m going to be looking at getting a new one soon.

For the front brake I got a Sram Apex for around £25. Very high quality and gives quick responsive braking. I was a little worried because the rims are not machined and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when braking on them. So far I haven’t noticed any difference. I haven’t been out on it in the wet however.

And finally the smiley face on the down tube. Basically this was the deciding factor for me buying this frame .

So to recap here’s a full list of components:

Frame: Cinelli Vigorelli

Wheel Set: Navigator Pista

Pedals: BLB Track Pedals, Double Strap, Double Cage

Crank Set: Miche Primato Advance Track 48T 165mm

Bottom Bracket: Miche Primato Bottom Bracket

Seat Post: Cinelli Vai XL

Seat: Charge Spoon

Stem: Cinelli Ant Stem

Rear Tyre: Continental Gatorskin

Front Tyre: Blue Continental Ultrasport

Innertubes: 48mm Presta valve

Rim Tape: 700c 14mm Wide

Bar Tape: Black Easton Cork

Brake Leaver: Tektro RX4.1 Aero

Brake Caliper: Sram Apex

So over all its been an interesting project, I’ve actually learnt quite a lot from it. I was very fortunate that all the components I bought fitted together and I didn’t have to send anything back. The bike rides beautifully, its so light and responsive. So if you have a spare grand lying about I recommend giving a custom build a shot!

Any questions feel free to right a comment, Ill try to get back to you promptly

Last weekend me and four others (Sean, Sammy, Chai and Pauly) from Nottingham joined the 5th Floor Crew, to embarked on a little (140 mile) bike ride adventure.

Click more below to see what we got up too..

Day 1

In preparation for the trip I had gone all out and kitted the new bike up with plenty of accessories to help with the ride. It looks a little ridiculous but I would be riding serious mileage on it and wanted it to be as comfortable as possible!

Note: The bike is still in development. There will be a post up of it completed.

Here it is out side Brik Barbershop Nottingham.

Met up with the other Notts riders and waited to get the hire van round to take us down to London.

Loading up the van. It was about £30 each for hire and fuel. Not too bad considering it would cost roughly the same to get a train, but then you have the hassle of only getting two bikes on at a time etc.. Luckily we had someone kind enough to drive us down there! We arrived In London and had to give our bikes to the Eurostar dispatch centre. Our train was at 6.20am the next day and the dispatch centre opens at 7.30 hence why we put them on the night before. We travelled across London and met with my friend Joe where we crashed at his place for the night.

Day Two

Up at 4.30am and caught a cab back across London to St Pancras station.

Arrived at St Pan and met up with the 5th Floor guys. There was about 15 of us in total. Got on the Eurostar and set off.

The train amazes me. In no time at all we were out of London and then blasting through the channel tunnel. While we were traveling through French country side I turned the GPS on my phone to see the speed… we were averaging 180 mph, Possibly the quickest I’ve been on land :s.

Arrived in Brussels and got set up. We met with two Austrian riders that were joining us also Mario who would be our guide up to Antwerp.

The ride through Brussels was good fun, lots of traffic to dodge. We rode up north through quite an industrial part of town. We then rode a few miles along a large canal were after about 20 miles we took our first break. The route we went, lead us across some dirt tracks which meant we got a little muddy..

(Photo: 5th Floor)

We kept riding for another 15 miles or so when we realised that it felt very familiar.. we soon realised that we had just done a rather large loop. Once back on track we headed along a 7 mile main road/motorway into Antwerp. It wasn’t too bad though because there were cycle lanes for us to ride on. Mario got a puncture so we took the opportunity to take another quick break.

Arrived in Antwerp and navigated our way through the streets.

(Photo: Sean)

Arrived at a fixed gear shop called Fixerati. We were welcomed with free beer, always a plus after a 40 mile ride. Had a look around the shop, which was super cool then went out in Antwerp for some lunch. After I demolished a Pizza we headed back to the shop. I bought a Cinelli stem that I had ordered 3 times in the UK but never received. Fitted that and then we headed off again.

Made our way out of Antwerp, said goodbye to Mario, now we had to navigate our way on our own. We tried to follow the printed maps we had, ended up in a pretty large industrial estate and realised we were a little lost. We decided it was time to bust out the tomtom. Luckily I had downloaded it for my phone just before I left the house. The kind tomtom lady navigated us through the monster industrial shipping port, that went on for about 10 miles eventually leading to the countryside..

(Photo: Sean)

Stopped off along a country road to take a little break. Sean got this wicked picture of Sammy looking down the farm track..

(Photo: Sean)

Ok, so we got to the next town and decided to have a quick look at how far we still had to go till the final destination. The tomtom was saying 50 miles. This was not good news. It was 7pm and the light was starting to die. A couple of guys we were with decided they couldn’t go any further and asked a local if there was a train station near by. It turned out that there was one about 7 miles away. So we headed to the town and luckily we managed to jump on the last train to a place called Middleburg. The train took about 45 min to get there, the distance seemed far. By the time we got off the train it was dark. Riding all that way in the dark would have been super sketchy. Also we didn’t have a place booked to stay so we really needed to get somewhere before everywhere closed. Excuses I know, but we still managed 70 miles so I think its acceptable.

The 5th Floor crew had booked a hotel in the neighbouring town which was 20 miles away so they managed to blag their way on to a public bus with their bikes! We went to the first decent looking hotel we could find and asked if they had any spare rooms. This mega pimpin guy greeted us and said he only had two rooms available. There was 7 of us so it was going to be a bit of a squeeze. He offered us the rooms and breakfast for €35 each. A pretty sweet deal but we said we were looking to spend maximum 30. He was happy to do that. Win. We were worried he might sell our bike though, as we left them unlocked in his garden.. We had a quick wander round the town then got to bed.

Here’s the tracked GPS data from the day. Recorded with GPS by MotionX

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Day Three

Up bright and early. Claimed our free breakfast and headed off.

Hotel Le Beau Rivage… The owner and his wife’s cars sat out front. The business.

We had a 20 mile ride across some huge Dykes and through wind farms to meet up with the rest of the riders in the next town. It was a nice morning ride along the coast line.

As soon as we met up with the others it started to rain. We set off in the hope that it would clear up..

About 30 miles into the ride we crossed another monster Dyke..

There were these deadly metal strips in the middle of the path. Rudy (right) was the first to get owned, it sent him crashing into the wall. Next was Chai (on the floor) and Sean had no choice but to ride directly into his leg and balls which meant he went over the handle bars hitting his face on his wheel and then the floor..

Luckily everyone was ok.. ish. Seans face was a little worse for wear and his bike had a dent in the top tube where the handle bars smashed into it. Once we sorted everyone out we took the opportunity to get a quick picture..

(Sean fourth from the right with a bloody face. Photo: 5th Floor)

More wet riding through green country side. By this point everything was completely soaked. it was ridiculous. Luckily it wasn’t too cold. It was about at this point when I got stung on my finger by what only could’ve been a wasp. It some how got through my glove. It was a real pain, it made my finger numb and sent wired pulses up my arm. Just what I needed, lame.

We finally made it to Rotterdam where we met up with some guys from Amsterdam. The plan was to ride the rest of the way, with them into A’dam but we decided it was just too wet. So we got some lunch and jumped on the train. Again, yes it was a bit of a cheat but we still managed another 70 miles that day. So 140 in two days, on a fixie, isnt too bad in my opinion .

We arrived in Amsterdam with enough time to have a little wander about then the five of us from Notts headed to Sean’s sisters place where she very kindly offered a place to stay. We dropped off our stuff and went for another wander about. Ended up going through the red light district.. Unbelievable.

Bikes made it to Amsterdam. Camera lens is foggy on the phone after being in wet pocket for 7 hours.

Some stills taken off the GoPro footage, from the day.

Here’s the tracked GPS data from the day. Recorded with GPS by MotionX

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Day Four

Up not so early. We were pretty crashed out, possibly got the best nights sleep, and I was only on a floor. Needed the rest obviously. We headed out and met the others at a shop called Patta. Pretty famous for having limited edition sneakers and clothing. We had a look around and I spotted some Nike SBs in the sale..

We got some lunch then chilled by one of the many canals with a couple of beers.

Riding my bike and carrying my old shoes in the box was a bit of a mission.. Chai reckoned that he could tape the box on the back of the bike. We didn’t think it would work.. much to our amazement it did!

We were all meant to be meeting at the bike shop Pristine. However we had no idea where it was. So we waited around until we spotted someone on a fixie to ask them. We saw a girl on one (Fixies seem to be incredibly rare in A’dam, saw about 6 the whole time there) and flagged her down. She didn’t know where it was but did have a phone with tinterwebs.

(Getting directions. Photo: Sean)

We ended up meeting with the owner of Pristine and he led us to the shop. He opened it up for us and let us have a poke around.

The shop is super cool lots of nice gear and all really well displayed.

(Photo: 5th Floor)

Sat up stairs in the cafe area with some beers and chilled for a bit

(Photo: 5th Floor)

Day Five

Day of travel. Got up and headed to the train station where we caught a train to Hook Of Holland, where we then caught the ferry.

Check out this little timelapse video I took while on train and ferry..

Train and Ferry Timelapse from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

The ferry we were on was pretty wicked. It was fairly new so it had all the mod cons like free wifi, PS3s, internet cafe, cinema and a out door basket ball court!

The weather was amazing, I pulled up a deck chair, cracked open a beer and chilled the fu*k out.

Arrived in Harwich, 6 hours later where another kind friend came and picked us up in a mini van. Just 3 more hours and we were back in Nottingham.

Over all, the trip was amazing. It was only short but it felt like we did a lot. Traveling that distance on a bike (especially bikes with no gears or free wheels) made me feel like we achieved something. I would highly recommend riding this part of the world, as cycling is so well catered for. It felt like bikes were actually taken seriously and respected, which I love.

Now I have the task of sorting all the GoPro footage we captured and putting it into some sort of edit.. stick around for that.

Any way, it was a bit of a mission writing this, there’s plenty more stuff  I could have gone on about, so if you want to know anything else just leave a comment..