I was thinking about this photo today. It’s an image I made just weeks after coming to the Ada Evening News, in December 1988. The newsroom and I brainstormed it as an image to illustrate Christmas Eve. The Santa was a Lion’s Club member whose name I have long forgotten. The kids at the top of the stairs, however, are Bron and Heidi Warren, who were about 7 and 10 when this image was made.

I used two flashes, one close to me on the right, pointed at Santa, and the other behind the Christmas tree, pointed up at the kids. You can see the shadows it casts on the wall to the right. 28mm f/2.8 at f/11, with 100-speed FujiColor film. It always amazes me that I can remember details about my images like that, but I can.

I thought about this photo today because Bron Warren died yesterday of cancer. He was 28.