Fatherland: What's in a picture?

This post is sponsored by The Picture Company.

My wife and I are a couple of saps. We get teary-eyed at the drop of a hat. It’s one of the first things we learned about each other and one of the first things we bonded over. I can’t remember what we were crying about that first time, but I’m quite sure it was something as ridiculous as this.

We do this thing where every year, we make a short picture slideshow of our little family, just to sum up the things we did for that particular year and to see our journey thus far. And every time we do it, it makes us cry. In fact, it’s kind of become the benchmark of how we know that the slideshow we’re editing is working or not. We don’t stop editing until the tears start flowing.

We are vulnerable to our children any way you look at it, the pictures only help in making us softer. And thinking about the world we live in today, I think we could all use a little more softness in our lives.

I’m just glad that my wife shares my love for photography. I’d say that she loves it more than me. And thanks to her, we have beautiful pictures of the two boys. But (and this is the pain of being a photographer) we’re not in many of the pictures we take. We only have a handful of pictures with the whole family, usually taken at a restaurant by our server. Far from moving and far from being tear-inducing.

To finally have a proper family photo, we went to The Picture Company. They have a lot of branches, so we went to the nearest one in Podium. What I liked about it is that the place and people are very friendly and good to kids. And if you’ve photographed kids before, you know that getting them in a good mood is essential to getting good pictures.

Ms. Ishee was our photographer and she charmed my shy little boy out of his shell. A feat in itself. Actually, I can’t say enough good things about the people there. They really made us feel comfortable and let the kids be themselves. And because of that, their personalities came out in the pictures.

And that’s ultimately what makes the pictures special to us. I don’t just see my family posing for a picture, I see the naughty smile my son makes when he’s making a joke. I see the pure, unfiltered delight when my youngest one laughs. I see the people who mean the most to me in a very real way, in the way that I know them. I feel part of a whole, lucky to belong to the very best people I know.

Find information about The Picture Company here. They are having a promo now that's perfect for sending Christmas cards and tags with your family photo on it.