"I've had kids sit for me at 9 months and they've already been taught the cheese smile," says Avid, a self-taught photographer who moved to the Pearl District from Los Angeles in 1991 and shifted from stills of Hollywood stars to portraits of Rose City children. "I have to say 'We're not going to smile. We're just going to be regular.' I find no need to ask them to do anything or be anything other than who and what they are: powerful little people who haven't yet been de-geniused by the world."

On the big day, if a child arrives wearing a fancy suit or a dress, off goes the suit or dress; on goes a plain, solid-colored T-shirt. Hair that has been assiduously coaxed into place gets mussed. Then Avid gets down on his hands and knees and plays, introducing the child to a collection of antique trucks and dolls he keeps in a corner, then to his camera, which he lets the child hold, even allowing the tyke to snap his picture.

Plop. Without fanfare the subject has taken a seat on a stool in front of a north-facing window with an expansive view of the Fremont Bridge.

"Look at that big truck crossing the bridge," Avid says. And the shutter clicks.

In that sixtieth of a second something magical happens.

"Somehow when I look through my ground-glass lens I'm able to see and capture a signature of a person's spirit that eventually resides in an image on photographic paper."

The other day, one of the first children he ever photographed returned as a grown woman, and asked for a portrait of her 2-year-old son.

"It's very difficult to put into words the feelings I have about this," says Avid. "It's like he's my grandkid."

Avid can be reached at 503-248-2251