A camera’s date can settle when something happened without settling what it meant.

Facts and meaning are different layers, and only one of them gets recorded automatically. The stamp in the corner will end an argument about which summer it was, which is genuinely useful, and then it will sit there saying nothing about whether that day was the good one or the one everything turned on. Families often argue about the second thing while presenting evidence for the first. Precision about the when can look like precision about the whole.

When a disagreement about the past comes up, separate the two questions out loud. Settle the date quickly, then talk properly about the part that actually matters.