If you’ve ever met me (live and in person) there is an 8/10 chance you’ve witnessed my tears. I cry. A lot.

What you may not know is that I also like to make my mother cry.

Not in the “I need bail money” kind of way but more in the “I’m so overcome with happy that I have to let the floodgates open” style. And I’m good at it.

Usually it’s words that do it.

I’ll write a heartfelt note (not hard since I love the woman more than chocolate) inside a birthday card or Mother’s Day memento and we’re off to the tearful races.

Now, to be fair, my mother has also been known to cry over TV commercials and while recounting a story she saw on the news, so it’s not that hard to get the waterfall going, but still it’s a challenge I like to put myself up to.

And on Mother’s Day I was at my tear-provoking best.
I knew it would be tears-a-palooza , because I was reading her this and  giving her this:

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A photo of my mom and my oldest son captured at Grand Velas Resort in Mexico and mounted on Canvas by BLACKS

The journey to tear-dom began a  few weeks ago. I was invited to the new BLACKS store at Yonge and Eglinton.
I got a tour of the new digs and the scoop on some of their new photo finishing offerings. Newsflash: It isn’t the old Black’s Photography you may be used to.

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While they still offer film developing, they’ve jumped into the telephone photography sharing field (aka “smartphonography”)  in a big way. Now all those instagram shots that you worked so hard to perfect with filters can live outside your phone in the same brilliant hues.  During my visit, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I assumed, when they asked me to send along a photo I loved ahead of time, that we’d be working on the computers so that they could demonstrate  different options now available in-store.

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That wasn’t the case.
While I toured the store and spoke at length with store manager Bardya, I forgot about that picture and instead began to see the possibilities waiting in and amongst the thousands of photos on my hard drives at home.

Photos like this.IMG_0370

and this.

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and this.

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Photos that deserve better than the deep dark corners of my hard drive.
I began to envision the walls of my home, bare since our return, covered in the memories that pop up every so often on screen savers only to disappear into the ether again.
And when Bardya mentioned that he often works with clients to figure out the best way to hang a series of shots on their wall? Well, just call me his new best friend.

What I didn’t realize was that as I ooh-ed and ahh-ed at their offerings up front,  worker bees had been busy in the back.

And when it was time to go they handed me the printed on canvas print of the shot I’ve loved since the moment I snapped it. And as much as I loved it, I knew right away that I’d have to pass it on to my mother.
Both for the  the moment it captured and for the guaranteed tears.  And I was right.
The smile I got after the eyes began to water was worth it.

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This post wasn’t paid for or solicited by BLACKS. I had no obligation to them of any kind. I just loved what they did and how they did it. Opinions are entirely my own.