I used to hate photographs. I hated taking pictures. I hated the fake posing. That’s what really got to me. The poses. It seems so artificial to modify your entire position before taking a picture. It didn’t feel real to me. It also seemed like people, instead of living in the moment they were in, focused solely on taking the pictures. And sometimes they never looked at them. That bothered me the most. On vacation, my mom would take hundreds of photos. I was and still am positive to this day that she has probably looked at less than ten percent of those photos. But all that hatred towards photos was an unreasonable opinion. What was needed was balance.

The reason behind photography should be capturing a chronicle. You are etching that moment in time into a little memory chip, and there’s a good chance it will live forever. Make that photo count, and make it represent the moment you’re in. You’re freezing time and storing it as a visual representation of reality in that split second. That’s incredible, and that’s why looking at your photos is so important.

At least monthly, I go back and look through old photos on my hard drive. I try to remember what I was thinking in that moment. I laugh with the friends in the picture or gaze at the beautiful sunset or the tiny ants or whatever I took a photo of. I make that photo matter. Because photos are important and valuable. From now on, humanity’s catalog of information on events will be infinitely better, because photos will live forever. My children’s grandchildren will be able to look at mundane photos of my bathroom, or me with my friends at Waffle House, and they’ll see the life I lived. And that feels so personal to me. I love that.

Let photos connect you with others. Don’t let yourself be distracted with the perfect photograph. Everytime I get everyone together to take a picture, I take a picture while they’re getting ready to pose. You see everyone being human and natural, and then you get the nice perfected smile. Including both styles is a great way to compromise.

Pictures are everything to us now. Everyday, we’re looking at pictures on Twitter, Instagram, or whatever else, and we’re getting a glimpse at an event we may not have been able to experience firsthand. I’ve never been to Mount Everest, but I’ve seen its beauty in a photograph. That’s magic right there.