Ladies and gentlemen, meet Bartholomew the Acrophobic and Aquaphobic Pirate Duck.

My friend Holmes and I are in Italy for our spring break, so we decided to bring along our rubber duckies, Bartholomew (mine) and Ferdinand (hers). The ducks are greatly enjoying their vacation, and we are enjoying photographing them.

It’s a funny little pet project of ours, shooting the ducks throughout our travels. The airport is particularly amusing, as who expects to see two college students setting up ducks and shooting them?

Eventually, we hope to write a children’s book about our traveling ducks. Holmes will photograph them (our illustrations) and I will write the story!

I took this photo in Lucca, after a day of bike riding and riding a carousel (an ostrich, naturally; it was the most ridiculous animal there). We needed the gelato!

Bartholomew would like to say that anyone who tries to eat his gelato (coco e cioccolate) will suffer the consequences. He’s serious. He has a gun.