Damn, now I am crushed. I dunno about the empty shoes. The mom wanted it. I assume she saw this sort of thing elsewhere. I just liked the kid obviously reaching up for mom.
I think it is great...but it is not a stand-alone picture. If it were part of a 5-picture post with other maternity shots, I think the reaction would be more positive.
I think the shos are maybe to big/mature for a newborn. A pair of robeez or something similar might be better. I just don't get newborn looking at those shoes. I agree with some of the above posters that it seems more somber then happy/joyful/exciting. It could be also the out of context thing. In a collage of other maternety shots it might work better.
Once I read through the posts and got the concept (and I can be a pretty out there sorta guy) I liked the concept but it wasn't a natural conclusion for me.
I definitely agree that the shoes don't say "newborn", that would help a lot.
But the biggest thing that blocked me from getting it was the child on tip toe - that was the action element... what I assumed the "story" was about and I wasn't coming up with "we're expecting". If the thread had no title, I'd have guessed something very different than a maternity portrait.
All that said, technically, a lovely shot and a certainly a creative idea.
IMHO, different shoes, pose the child like the parents and the shot would work.
I think a great photo would be a crop of just the kid's and mom's feet. No empty shoes, no dad's feet. No caption or explanation. I think that a child's feet on their tiptoes have so much meaning, in that they express some fundamental features of the experience f being a child, that such a photo could be very powerful.
