October is a magical time of year for autumn leaves, pumpkin-spice, and your favorite grapefruit shirt. Caleb is not one to slavishly adhere the usual guidelines of avoiding busy patterns for photos, and it worked for him. The happy grapefruit print added a whimsical element to his pictures and reflected the quirky nature of his personality. We did his photos at his home, which is a pastoral retreat, complete with a barn, chickens, and pond with a dock. Oh, and a soccer goal. Obviously.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that Caleb has a serious temperment, but he is not someone who loves to mug for the camera. He cooperated to make his mom happy and knew that the best way to make me leave him alone was to just do what I asked him to and get it over with. And I did eventually go away, after making him wear four different shirts over five different settings, and making a stump crumble to pieces when I put the weight of my left foot on it. But he obediently persevered, even as his mother and I pestered him for the good smile, not the fake one. But he held his composure admirably, and I appreciated his efforts to make us happy!