How does motherhood shape photographers? On this Mother’s Day, I asked six National Geographic photographers, who are also moms, to share images of their own children and write about their experiences balancing motherhood and their photographic careers. They shared intimate images and beautiful stories of love, adventure, ritual, and reunion. Happy Mother’s Day!

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For so much of my life, I have associated photography with work, so ironically, I don’t photograph my own family very much. My husband takes most of our family photographs, and when I do shoot at home, it’s with my iPhone. So, this image is one of a handful of times when I have actually photographed Lukas with my professional 35mm Nikon camera. I shot it across the