Flying Dragon, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

We grabbed our four kids and brought them into the controlled environment of a studio. Actually, the environment became uncontrolled the moment we introduced our four kids (plus a friend of Nicky’s). Five kids in a studio space along with toys, costumes, swords, and a stroller for Katie to push is a recipe for chaos that is barely controlled—a primitive rendering of entropy not unlike that presented by the universe itself.

The studio belonged to Graham Bird, who graciously and patiently presided over lighting our family version of chaos.

Taking advantage of the studio lighting, I encouraged the kids to jump around and twirl. Mathew is shown here in his dragon costume coming down from a flying leap—caught in mid-air on a seamless background thanks to the magic of flash photography.