"Hey, how old are you?"

When you photograph kids it helps to have as many tricks up your sleeve as possible, especially when they are small, and especially on days, for whatever reason, they might be trying to eat your pants.

This might sound odd, but it's not. Kids are not fully wired yet, there are still loose power lines flapping around there and there, short circuits, which is what makes them so great. Kids are silly. Kids are unpredictable. I think life would be a lot more fun if adults had to get rewired every ten years.

On this particular shoot, when he wasn't trying to attack my clothes, this little guy was on the move. He was trucking around, running, throwing his football, chasing ducks, chasing his sister, jumping, squatting, twirling, laughing, and practicing just about every other fast movement know to the human race.

It was hard to make pictures. The light was good, the location was good, so I had to trick him. Easiest trick in the book.

"Hey, how old are you?"

He froze.

The great internal wheel began to turn and you could just see his mind racing. "I know this one," he thought.

Then suddenly his mind retraced its steps and equated age with fingers and the great show began.

Just look at the concentration!! "How old AM I?" he thought. Three? Four? What is this thumb doing here? Does that count?

I just shot, waited, shot, waited and shot again. It as over in a minute, sealed in time.

And by the looks of it, he was pretty darn happy with himself.