How many times have you made your family grumble because you just have to have a group picture in the park you’re visiting? Or maybe you’re the sibling who was grudgingly dragged into seemingly endless pictures over family vacation (sorry, buddy). Here’s the thing: Pictures matter. There’s a reason we’re constantly snapping away and seeking out photo ops of the silliest things. Bear with me.

As I was scrolling through Facebook the other day, I came across a quote from Karl Lagerfeld that made me pause. It’s exactly why I am so enamored with photographing my life: “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” That, my friends, is why I always want to take silly pictures together. Roger Kingston also nailed it when he said, “A camera is a save button for the mind’s eye.”

And that, my friends, is why pictures matter. Pictures are little windows into past experiences, get-togethers and every day moments. They can also be used to commemorate important firsts, from a baby’s first steps and every single first day of school to a family's coveted first trip to Disney World. Candids are the best, but even quick pictures together at a family meal or fun landmark bring to life wonderful memories of the jokes that were exchanged and the antics that occurred. Why do you think parents are so quick to pull out the photo album when friends and family (and sometimes even boyfriends or girlfriends) are over? Pictures bring to mind vivid and fond memories and initiate fabulous, if at times embarrassing, storytelling opportunities.

Today, it’s far more common to scroll through a friend’s latest vacation album on Facebook than flip through a physical photo album, but even as the technology changes, the value remains the same. In fact, with cameras in the hands of everyone who owns a smart phone, there is even more opportunity to capture those spur-of-the-moment things. Granted, every single picture you take does not need to be posted on social media for the world to see, but Facebook is certainly a fantastic tool to share memories with family and friends who are far away. Pictures provide a way to show, not just tell, those memories with the people you love.

More than anything, pictures matter because they remain constant, even as the world changes. I want to be able to pull out old pictures years later and be reminded of fun movie nights and impromptu adventures, even when time has faded the memories. Aaron Siskind put it well when he said, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then a whole lifetime of pictures are worth volumes. Next time someone insists on taking a picture together, know that they (probably) aren’t just going out of their way to torture you; it is something they value and will look back on with fond memories.