Makes me cookies
by mycelium

Comment:
Nice idea. The brightly printed napkin is uneccessary to the idea and very distracting. I think mom's smile should be more in focus then the cookies.

Fading Memory of a Mother's Love
by enash

Comment:
Very depressing interpretation of the challenge.

Waiting for the Doctor
by gurlwithapen

Comment:
realize a hospital room doesn't provide the most flattering light but this is awful. Mom looks positively yellow. And why not show her belly? If I didn't have the title to go by this woman could be in the hospital for any number of reasons.

The Energizer Bunny (Still Going After All These Years...)
by SJCarter

Comment:
This is a cute capture but I get more of a sense of long marriage and romance than of motherhood from this. This cute couple deserves better lighting than the harsh flash of this photo.

True Love
by patrinus

Comment:
Nice pose and composition. I wish the lighting was a bit kinder to mom though. I'd like to see lighting that would soften the ueven skin tone created by tan lines and freckles.

Soon
by Shan2112

Comment:
I like the composition and the classic (if a bit cliche) placement of the subject in a rocking chair. I don't for the busy texture that the ribbing on the sweater creates in combination with the radiator grill in the background. I also don't care for the choice to crop out her head. Why not show future mom's expression?

Tired Mother
by pidge

Comment:
Without the title, this shot doesn't indicate anything about motherhood, it just looks like any half asleep dog. Why not show the puppies? In terms of photographic quality, I don't care for this very tight vertical crop.

-
by robjamez

Comment:
How odd that everyone looks rather sad and pensive in this photo. I like the composition quite a bit---a very classic triangle. I like the simplicity of the background.

The exposure seems a bit fuzzy around the boy, as if the shutter wasn't fast enough to capture a bit of wiggling. The skin tone on the boy and girl are a bit blown out.

It bothers me that mom's arm is not around the daughter. There is a wierd distance created visually between the mom and the daughter due to the black clothing blending in with the black background and an emotional distance created by the daughter's sad expression. The mother looks a bit irritated, her lips look rather pressed together. I'm only mentioning this because in evaluating this challenge I feel the emotional content is of equal importance to the technical content. I'm sure this is a very happy family. Not knowing the subjects I can only evaluate the photo.

I'm guessing the tension I'm seeing in this shot is just a reflection of the subjects' growing impatience with the photographic process.

Happy Riders
by vtruan

Comment:
This is a very good family photo album shot. It's a bit grainy and overexposed to really work for me as a real quality photo. The colors lack vibrancy and the skin tones are pale and washed out looking. The background is downright dreary (this is an instance where shallow depth of field really comes in handy). The cropping off of her arm at the left bothers me. I have a pet peeve with children wearing clothes with characters on them in photographs. I don't mean kids shouldn't wear these clothes (which are often their favorites). I just feel that good planning for photographing children for something other than family keepsakes should involve choosing classic clothing that won't distract from the timelessness a photo like this can evoke. Characters and sports logos tend to date a photo and distract the viewer, IMO.

On the plus side, mom is lovely and the little boy's joyful grin is priceless.

Quality Time
by esdarby

Comment:
This is a really cute idea. The child's legs dangling high above mom's are precious. The photo is lacking a bit in terms of quality. I think this might be a case were black and white would have worked best. I'm kind of distracted by the cheesy garland in the background, especially because this is clearly not a wintery place. It adds a jarring element to what could be a very universal image.