365 Days of RX1 - one camera, one lens, 12 projects - PART TWO

Twenty-Fifth day of the "I'm Batman" theme, looking for some fresh, milky, tasty mozzarella for lunch? At the Bat-Market down the street the Bat-Clerk will serve you excellent Bat-Mozzarella along with many other Bat-Delicatessens. Don't be afraid, he fights the evil additives so his food is always good for you.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Twenty-Sixth day of the "I'm Batman" theme, the Bat-LPs-Seller is here for you and your craving need of second-hand, extremely-rare, perfectly-preserved records. She's tough, rock, and able to locate any LP in the huge store's collection in a few seconds. Are you ready for some Bat-Rock?

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Twenty-Seventh day of the "I'm Batman" theme, the Bat-Luther can fix any Bat-Guitar as good as new, you just need to find him and his Bat-Lab-Cave...

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Twenty-Eighth day of the "I'm Batman" theme, the Bat-Gas-Station is the only place equipped to gas up the Bat-Mobile. Here the Bat-Petrol-Pump-Attendant serves with his characteristic smile 24-7. If your car isn't fast enough, come here and try with the Bat-Gas…

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Twenty-Ninth day of the "I'm Batman" theme, it's Saturday again and the Bat-Taxi-Driver is ready to drive the citizens to the airport as fast as his Bat-Taxi can (which is way faster than with any standard Taxi). Between a ride and the other he stays in, window open, having a Bat-Smoke as any respectable Taxi driver.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Thirtieth day of the "I'm Batman" theme, it's Sunday and the Bat-Yachtsman enjoys some sane Bat-Regatta on his Bat-Boat with his Bat-Crew.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Thirty-First and last day of the "I'm Batman" theme, this project ends but a new week starts. I like to think that all the Batmen and Batwomen in the world washed their mask on Sunday and got it clean and dry today, just in time to return to their heroic jobs and activities, where they help the city going on, every day, fighting their foes, keeping us safe. A functioning citizen is way more useful than any super-hero!

I had a lot of fun this month, and looking at the internet traffic I know you enjoyed it too. The next monthly theme starts tomorrow so stay tuned and see you all!

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Welcome to "Family Holidays", the new monthly theme of my "365 Days of RX1: one camera, one lens, 12 projects" blog. This theme came almost as an urge to me: in the past several months, between the new business, the blog, and the exhibitions, I had less and less time to spend with my daughter Agata and, with it, less and less chances to record on photos or videos her incredible physical and intellectual growth.

With my wife Claudia we decided that this month we'll try to spend as much (quality) time as we can with Agata. While we obviously can't cancel our scheduled jobs in August, we settled that no post-production or email-answering will be done in the next weeks, so freeing enough time to finally enjoy some family holidays. Our first ones, I feel, since now Agata is twenty-two months old and, as such, quite a third companion.

I basically feel I can't afford to loose any minute of this month to focus on any other project that isn't enjoying my family, so I guess taking and sharing snapshots of it is the best I can do (and you can get…). I hope you'll enjoy this simpler and more intimate journey for this month, I know a lot of you are in my very same situation right now…

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Second day of the "Family Holidays" theme, I take sunset-candid-portraits of kids for a living (well, not "only" that, but also…), and finally I get to do the same with my daughter. Of course, while looking through the (electronic) viewfinder, I do not only compose the image and wait for a nice facial expression of my subject, I also feel proud for what huge steps Agata has made in the last few weeks. She's now getting pretty athletic (as much as a twenty two months old girl can be): for example, she climbs. At the beginning she wasn't very good at it (as the Band-Aid on her chick well shows), but now she's OK. More than OK. And together with climbing she started liking scouting. She's curious and she now looks for things to climb on or where to do other things. Which means we can't turn away from her, not even for a few seconds. Well, at least while I'm photographing her I'm kind of babysitting her too…

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Third day of the "Family Holidays" theme, I could spend most of my hours looking at my daughter's Agata little big adventures. We were supposed to be enjoying the shores of Sardinia these days, but Agata caught a bad impetigo and we were forced to find a different solution. The doctors said no sea, no sand, no sun, and no sweat. Which on any Italian August isn't an easy combination to fulfill. Luckily we have a couple of good friends which shared with us their house on the Abruzzi's mountains, and everything went smooth. Agata loves hiking, which means sitting on a special seat-backpack on my shoulders while singing songs and watching the nature around. And se also loves to picnic, mostly because she loves eating, but also because she gets to run on the grass, play with the flowers, and eat (yeah, I said it twice, but she loves it so much). In the mean time, we get to rest at the shade of majestic trees, watching her and enjoying her little big adventures…



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Luca Rossini (1979)

Forth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, Agata loves animals and experiencing new activities (which, being her 22 months old, are almost any activities). Here on the mountains of Abruzzi there are plenty of riding stables where it is possible to rent any kind (and any size) of horse.

We got the "miniest" mini-pony they had, called Topolino (Mikey Mouse), and Agata was so happy she kept singing "Agata is very little, and the horse is very little, and its name is Topolino", and similar things…

The pony, on the other side, was way more interested in eating grass from the fields than to walk our daughter around, and didn't really like it when we had to pull it around. I guess the owner was right when she said: "Ponies are crazy little bastards…".

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Fifth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, since Agata loved so much riding the little mini pony Topolino, we thought to try having a family ride on real (big) horses. Claudia used to ride when she was a kid, while I basically never did it, but the landscapes here on the Abruzzi mountains are so gorgeous and the weather so gentle that the idea of riding through them on a beautiful horse is just too charming. So, here we are.

Agata did sit on a horse together with an instructor, and she had to wear a helmet, which made her baby head look even more disproportionate than usual. And gave her gaze a bad-ass look.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Sixth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, it's time to hit the road, and luckily Agata loves road trips. Claudia and I have a scheduled job and therefore we were forced to leave the mountains even though we enjoyed our time there so much. Once the job is done, however, we'll head to the seaside for a few more days of family holidays. Neither sand nor salt water will stop me from taking some more shots of Agata enjoying her time with us…

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Seventh day of the "Family Holidays" theme, the family holidays at the seaside house start today. For me and Claudia, to be precise. Agata arrived earlier with her grandparents while Claudia and I were shooting a wedding. We were away just a few days, and yet, again, just a few days were enough for her to grow sensibly. I don't know if it's just the (very cute) way her grandma makes her hair, but Agata suddenly seems more like a girl than a baby. Or it's just me and my "father's eye"...

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Eighth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, Agata is a eater. She loves eating, she loves food, she loves tasting, she loves experimenting with anything that is (or looks like) comestible. She's totally like me in this respect. I will never admit to anyone the (horrible) things I've done with food… Ok, now this may seem pretty creepy, I'm not talking sexually (like American Pie!) here, but more like I could keep eating before, during, and after lunch or dinner, and like crazy. For a time in my life I've been pretty fat, indeed. Luckily at the age of fifteen I started going to the pool and I fixed it. But with Agata I'll have to be careful, cause I know what drives her with food, it's the same urge that sometimes still drives me (crazy).

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Ninth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, Agata dares to approach the sea by her own. She asks for her water wings as soon as we get to the shore, then she grabs whichever toy she first finds to get water in, and she runs right into the sea. Luckily Agata is very prudent, so she stops after a few steps and enjoys the sea where the water is very shallow, plus she doesn't trust waves and bothers to talk them out of waving too much while she plays...

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Tenth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, it's nap-time for Agata. She loves sleeping (something she has in common with her mother, her mother's sister, and my sister too) and, as the sweetest little girl she is, she loves hugging and cuddling her doll. Agata calls it (him) "Bimbo piccolo", literally "little baby"… because Agata loves everything that is "piccolo" (little), and if you ask her if she's grown, she'll always answer "no, Agata's little".

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Eleventh day of the "Family Holidays" theme, breakfast first thing in the morning is a family routine, and Agata is well aware of it. We are back in Rome for a couple of days since Claudia and I have two weddings to shoot, and this time Agata came home with us. Since yesterday night we arrived home quite late and I still had work to do, this morning Claudia took care of waking up and playing with Agata so to let me sleep a bit longer. But eventually, at around half past nine, my little daughter busted in the bedroom and started calling "DAAAAAAD, breakfast is reaaaaady" (in Italian it sounded more like "PAPAAAAA', è ponta lazioooone" which is a poorly pronounced "papà, è pronta la colazione"…). A few minutes later I was having my first coffee while she was eating her milk and cookies (or more appropriately, while she was covering her face with milk and cookies).

Breakfast is a family thing in hour home, and Agata is well part of it.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Twelfth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, the whole family is still in Rome since Claudia and I have to shoot another wedding, and Agata fights the heat with frequent baths in her small inflatable yellow-duck-pool. The thing is actually supposed to be a very small dinghy to keep the kids out of the water (on it, not in it), but we've got a little creative and used it the other way around. She loves playing with water, especially to fill every kind of cup-looking thing with it and then to splash it on her head, out of the pool, or to hideously try to drink it (she knows it's forbidden!). I'm so glad these days of work I can still find some spare time to enjoy Agata, even though I'm sorry for her she has to stay in the heat of the city while she could be enjoying the sea and its beaches. Luckily by tomorrow we'll head to the coast for a few more days of family holidays.

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Luca Rossini (1979)

Thirteenth day of the "Family Holidays" theme, Claudia and I survived two weddings in a row and today we finally moved the family back to the seaside. Agata spent the day singing her own new hit "We're going to the sea. How nice is the sea! How nice are mum and dad! How nice the sea with mum and dad!"… No kidding, the girl had a huge growth in her speaking abilities in the last few weeks, she constantly amazes us with sentences more and more complex. That said, as soon as we reached the actual shore, the song has been replaced by swimming. Well, maybe more by swimming attempts. As you can see Agata is learning how to flap her feet in the sea. Maybe the water is still a bit too shallow, but practice is always good, isn't it?

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Luca Rossini (1979)