In honor of Moms the world over, and in recognition of Mother's Day (celebrated in the U.S. and many other countries on the 2nd Sunday in May), this week's challenge is Moms & Motherhood.

Let us see your photos of moms and motherhood. Mom's and grandma's and grannies, and nannies are all the greatest and deserve their place in the spotlight.

Oh, and please restrict your images to HUMAN moms. Lets save the mama ducks and other feathered, furry or slimy friends for another challenge.

Looking forward to everyone's entries

Challenge Starts:
NOW

Challenge Ends:
Monday, May 10th @ 11:59PM Official PF Server Time

The fine print....
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread, and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose 1 of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus a day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Any Pentax camera will do or a Samsung DSLR.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.

Previous Challenge Subjects:
1-Statues, 2-Wheels, 3-Speed, 4-Peace, 5-Survival, 6-Macro, 7-Mountains, 8-Children, 9-Post Processing, 10- Windows & Doors, 11-Sport, 12-Urban Landscape, 13-Wisdom, 14-Power, 15-Music, 16-Pathways, 17-Lines, 18-Storm, 19-Boats, 20-Water, 21 - Golden Hour, 22 - Natural Lighting, Portraits, 23-Motion Blur, 24-Simplicity, 25-Color, 26-Cars, 27-Repetition, 28-Wildlife, 29-Epiphany, 30-Contrast, 31-Pets, 32-Landscapes, 33-Coastal, 34-Churches, 35-Bridges, 36-Creation, 37-Still Life: Food, 38-At the Zoo, 39-Wide Aperture, 40-Merry Christmas, 41- Sunsets, 42-Action, 43-Fireworks, 44-Manipulated Light Portraits, 45- Advertising/Product Shot, 46- B&W Street Shooting, people/buildings, 47-Vanishing Point, 48-Reflection, 49-Tranquility, 50-Expressions, 51-S Curve, 52-Hands, 53-Shadows, 54-Your Favorite Beverage, 55-Barriers, 56-Perspective, 57-Night Scenes, 58-Zen-like...Water and Stone 59-Modern architecture, 60-Sunrises, 61-Red, 62-Action on water, 63-Bodies in Motion, 64-Ruins, 65-Blue and green, 66-Iridescence, 67-Anthropomorpha, 68–Sound, 69-Backlight, 70-Group Shot, 71-Railway Scenes, 72-Technology, 73-Color on Color, 74-History, 75-Autumn/Harvest 76-working men and women, 77-Silhouettes, 78 Stranger Portrait, 79-Transportation, 80 - Lonely, 81 - Holidays, 82 - Toys 'n Games, 83 - Machines, 84 - Ice, 85 - Cats, 86 - Stories, 87 - Cultures, 88 - Absence, 89 - Weather, 90 - Old roads, 91 - The River, 92 - The Seventies, 93 - Beautiful Bokeh, 94 - Balance, 95 - Crop a miniature landscape, 96 - Opposing gravity, 97- Feet, 98 - Sacred Grounds, 99 - Extraordinarily Ordinary, 100-added textures, 101-still life, 102-bicycles, 103 - Broken, 104- Flowers (B&W), 105 Backlighting, 106-Water. 107-Wind, 108-Parent/Child candids, 109-Passion, 110-Events, 111-Streets, 112-The Aged, 113-Fire and Heat, 114-Nature vs. Culture, 115 - Letters or Numbers, 116 - Self-Portrait, 117 - The Tree, 118 - Minimalism, 119 - Rust, 120 - Before & After, 121 - Negative Space, 122 - Decay & Dereliction, 123 - Cold, 124 - Melancholy, 125 - The Element of Time, 126 - Public Transportation, 127 - Yin Yang, 128 - Sepia or Dual Tone, 129 - Hand Coloring, 130 - Light Trails, 131-Once in a lifetime

[axl]

Do moms to be count?
----
if not, it's bad timing Mike... I'm flying back home on Saturday to see my sister with her 4 months old (first time I'll see im in person) and of course my mom.....
oh well...
but if moms to be count... then I'm in

[MRRiley]

Oh, I'd say they count for sure. The pregnancy is all part of "motherhood."

[axl]

Oh, I'd say they count for sure. The pregnancy is all part of "motherhood."

I'm in then!

[Mike L]

This is a tough challenge for me, I became a father in March 2009 so I have plenty of shots fitting the theme but deciding what shot is the hard part.

I'll go for a mother to be shot.



15 months later the bump looks like this (not part of my entry)

[woof]

[K McCall]

I titled this "There Are Little Dramas Happening All Around Us." I don't know for sure that this woman was the kid's mother, but there was something so quintessential about the gesture that I've always assumed that was their relationship:


There are little dramas happening all around us. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[JeffJS]

The quality of this photo is nothing to write home about but it's one of the few I have that was taken with a Pentax camera. This is my mother. 1 month before this photo was taken she had completed 4 rounds of brutal Chemotherapy and had literally withered away to almost nothing from Small Cell Cancer. There are no stages with this particular form, either you have it or you don't. 99 times out of 100, it is a death sentence. They had told her that she was in remission and it would be closely watched.

She is shown here doing what she absolutely loved to do. Working on one of her houses shaping and placing the aluminum trim around the windows we had recently installed. She continued to mend for a couple more months getting stronger and to the point where she didn't feel the need to wrap her head anymore (from loosing all her hair). 2 months after this photo was taken, she was informed it had returned and would have to begin treatment again. 4 months later, she became one of the 99 out of 100.

Whether this thread is in the spirit of mother's day or not, if your parents are still with you, squash any feuds you may be having (I never had such an issue), and dial the phone, go visit, or even text if they are into that. Do not take for granted that you'll always be able to do so.

[RoxnDox]

The end of a long trail... Our son had a real challenge making friends when he was younger (a touch of Asperger's, like some of his ancestry including his father ), and one of the things that really brought him out of his shell and helped him be a social critter was Marching Band. He played trumpet and tuba in high school, and carried on as a Sousaphone player at Iowa State University. We enjoyed watching the kids play and have a good time, and as a result we traveled many many miles over the years, following school buses to shows in 6 states. We went to every single home football game in high school and at ISU (3 hrs away), in rain and sun and snow and tornadoes, just to see our kids play and have fun. Didn't care what the football scores were, nearly as much as we cared about whether the band put on a good show. We were known as "Mama & Papa Cornwall" to all the kids, even in college (OK, mostly just the sousa section there), and had a lot of kids tell us they were jealous of the fact that we went to see the band all the time. Some of them had parents who had *never* seen their kids perform.

This photo was taken in Josh's senior year, just as the ISU band was getting ready to march off on the 1/2 mile trip to the stadium, for the final performance of the year and his final show as a Cyclone. Mom was pretty emotional about it... It was one of the things we enjoyed so much, being a part of these kids' life, and the end of the trail was right there in sight. Sadness but also pride and happiness that he'd gotten so much out of the music programs over the years...

Jim

[foxglove]

Whether this thread is in the spirit of mother's day or not, if your parents are still with you, squash any feuds you may be having (I never had such an issue), and dial the phone, go visit, or even text if they are into that. Do not take for granted that you'll always be able to do so.

I'd say it's exactly in the right spirit. And I second your suggestion - my mum died suddenly some years ago, and I was very glad that I had quite recently gone to visit. Uncharacteristically for me, it was even on Mother's Day, and we'd brought her a shrub for her garden. None of my family are great telephoners, so it was easy to go for weeks without calling, and I live some distance away. Having had a nice visit recently made the loss marginally less wrenching - at least I wasn't feeling guilty and neglectful! I now try to phone my dad more often, even if we haven't got much to say most of the time.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a people photographer, so I don't have any decent photos of Mum. This isn't an entry, I just felt like including some sort of image... although it was taken on a Pentax! It's a rather poor scan of a slide taken by Dad using his Spotmatic, of Mum and me discussing the existence of Santa... obviously a few years back!

Julie

[Bramela]

My grandson, Sam, and his Nan. This relationship is a very special one. Sam has taken to his Nan in a very special way.

[MRRiley]

Come on folks. I know more of you than this have moms. Gimme entries!

Mike

[ll_coffee_lP]

c[_]

[farfisa]

technically, this photo (not the child) was an accident, but I like it
My wife and daughter #2

[xjjohnno]

A bit fuzzy, but you know how kids get grumpy out and about leaving mum feeling on the spot.
[IMGWIDELEFT]http://www.xjgarage.org/photos/qvmarket2/slides/PICT3793.JPG[/IMGWIDELEFT]