Flat lay photography isn’t just about photographing objects from an overhead perspective; it's about shaping a world within a frame that conveys emotion, context, and intention. Each composition becomes a silent narrator, whispering stories through color, texture, and arrangement. It is an artistic form that encourages photographers to think like visual storytellers. Whether you’re chronicling a morning ritual or evoking the nostalgia of a season, every object placed in your frame should serve a purpose.
Before reaching for your camera, begin with imagination. Visual storytelling starts not with a shutter click, but with a concept. Ask yourself: what story do I want to tell? Is it a cozy winter memory, the freshness of spring, or perhaps a moment of quiet reflection over a cup of coffee? Let your narrative drive your choices. Sketch the scene if it helps clarify your vision. Having a concept mapped out allows you to select props with care and design a composition that feels both intentional and compelling.
Seasons offer rich storytelling opportunities and a palette of emotional cues. Winter provides an atmosphere of minimalism and quietude. The cool light, soft shadows, and monochrome aesthetic lend themselves to themes of calm, clarity, and introspection. Simple elements like a white knit scarf, a pinecone, a steaming cup, or even a smudge of powdered sugar can recreate the season’s serene magic. In contrast, autumn invites warmth and texture. It’s the season of visual abundance. Deep oranges, russet leaves, cinnamon sticks, woolen textures, and wooden utensils can infuse your frame with a sense of comfort and richness.
Spring feels lighter, softer, and more poetic. It’s an invitation to weave pastel tones, natural florals, and delicate textures into your imagery. Cherry blossoms, floral tea sets, watercolor sketches, and handwritten notes might be the perfect ingredients to conjure springtime sentiment. Summer, on the other hand, thrives in vibrance. Think of sunlight dancing on bright fabrics, ripe fruits like watermelon and citrus, seashells collected on the shore, and linen garments fluttering in a breeze. Use personal associations with each season to make your visual narrative more authentic. The stronger the emotional connection you have to your subject, the more resonant your photograph will be for viewers.
Infusing Emotion and Movement into Still Life Scenes
To bring warmth and authenticity into your flat lay compositions, consider incorporating the human element. A simple touch of life can make your still scene feel dynamic. The inclusion of hands in the frame not only adds intimacy but also suggests action and connection. It becomes a temporal marker within the stillness, allowing the viewer to feel like a part of the moment. Imagine capturing fingers delicately scattering herbs, lifting a teacup, writing a note, or unwrapping a gift. These gestures ground the viewer and enrich the narrative.
If you’re photographing yourself, a remote shutter release is a useful tool to ensure precise timing and consistent lighting. If that’s not an option, pre-plan your shot with a stand-in object, and enlist the help of someone else to bring your concept to life while you direct the frame. Every movement in the frame should feel meaningful, as if it's part of a story unfolding.
Among all the versatile subjects in flat lay photography, coffee stands out as a timeless muse. It’s not just a beverage; it’s an emotional motif that can anchor an entire scene. From quiet morning rituals to late-night brainstorming sessions, coffee has a mood for every hour. Envision your subject as a character in a themed narrative. A writer’s desk might feature ink-stained journals, scattered manuscripts, a half-drunk espresso, and paperclips in disarray, suggesting creative chaos. A dreamy painter might be surrounded by cups of coffee used as watercolors, with warm stains bleeding into sketchbooks, paintbrushes resting beside croissants.
Push your creativity further by letting coffee act as a metaphor. Its circular shape can become whimsical hot air balloons floating above a paper town. String or wire can serve as tethers, with the rest of the scene crafted from paper and imagination. Alternatively, build a celestial concept where coffee cups orbit around a muffin sun, cookies serve as moons, and powdered cinnamon adds the feel of stardust. These playful reinterpretations add depth and charm, turning everyday items into magical storytelling elements.
Elevating Culinary Narratives Through Texture and Composition
Food, with its infinite textures and forms, is a beloved subject in flat lay photography. But instead of just capturing the final plated dish, take viewers behind the scenes. Focus on the tactile beauty of the process. There’s a raw elegance in showcasing the preparation: cracked eggshells, a dusting of flour, scattered herbs, and antique utensils mid-use. These vignettes are not only visually compelling, they also create sensory engagement, allowing viewers to imagine scent, taste, and touch.
Think about layering your frame with unfinished stories. Show a spoon halfway dipped into honey, a lemon being zested, or a loaf of bread mid-slice. The suggestion of human interaction breathes life into the photo. You can also use food as an artistic tool. Flour, for instance, can become a medium for design. On a dark wooden board, place paper cut-outs of stars, hearts, or trees. Dust the board with flour, then lift the templates to reveal negative space designs. The result is simple yet visually captivating.
Honey is another versatile element. Beyond its golden glow and sticky sweetness, it can be sculpted into decorative swirls or drizzles to elevate a breakfast tableau. If you're concerned about its fluidity, apply it using a syringe or over a stencil on a white background to maintain clean edges and control. Syrups, marmalades, or chocolate ganache can be used similarly, transforming the sticky into the sublime. Each dollop or swirl becomes an abstract brushstroke in your edible artwork.
Textures play a vital role in enhancing flat lay compositions. Consider contrast when styling your frame. Combine rough surfaces with smooth ones, warm tones with cool hues, matte objects with glossy accents. A wooden chopping board placed next to polished marble, or linen napkins laid over ceramic plates, creates dimension and visual intrigue. This harmony of contrast pulls the viewer into the scene and encourages the eye to linger longer.
Lighting is equally crucial. Natural light from a side window often produces the most flattering and realistic shadows. Experiment with different times of day to observe how light transforms your scene. Morning light tends to be softer and cooler, evoking a sense of calm. Afternoon light is warmer, ideal for conveying vibrance and energy. Avoid harsh midday sun unless you’re going for a high-contrast, dramatic aesthetic.
The final secret to a truly captivating flat lay lies in the meaning you imbue within every item. Beauty alone won’t hold the viewer’s attention. Choose props that resonate with you. A vintage spoon from your grandmother’s kitchen. A book with notes scribbled in the margins. A stone you found on a meaningful hike. These elements transform your frame from decorative to deeply personal. They provide subtle storytelling threads that viewers may not fully grasp but will intuitively feel.
Flat lay photography is a form of visual poetry. It's about orchestrating a scene that captures emotion, atmosphere, and memory from above. When every object in your frame is chosen with intention and every detail serves a narrative purpose, your image transcends aesthetics. It becomes a portal into a moment, an emotion, or a dream. Whether you're capturing seasonal still lifes, infusing your photos with human warmth, or sculpting scenes with food and drink, always let your story guide you. That’s when your photography will not only captivate the eye but also move the heart.
Exploring the Language of Storytelling in Flat Lay Photography
Flat lay photography isn’t just about arranging items neatly; it’s about crafting a narrative that speaks directly to the viewer’s imagination. Every detail in a flat lay setup carries the potential to contribute to a broader story, making the scene more immersive and emotionally compelling. Once you understand how visual storytelling works within the flat lay format, the creative possibilities begin to expand dramatically. This photographic style excels in translating ideas into visual poems, where every object, color, shadow, and texture forms part of a greater message.
One effective technique for adding depth to your compositions is focusing on the process rather than the finished product. For example, in culinary photography, showcasing the preparation phase evokes a deeper sense of nostalgia and intimacy. Picture an unbaked pie with its dough being molded by hands dusted in flour. Around it, scatter cinnamon sticks, shiny apples, measuring spoons, and cookie cutters shaped like stars. This not only captures the tactile pleasure of baking but also transports the viewer to cherished kitchen memories. You can add another layer of intrigue by drawing simple but thematic images in the flour itselfperhaps outlines of stars, playful animals, or abstract swirls that enhance the emotional undertone of the image.
The power of suggestion can’t be underestimated. Flat lay compositions thrive when they allow viewers to fill in the gaps. Using negative space as a tool for creating silhouettes can lead to striking visuals. Imagine crafting the shape of a sailboat using an outline and filling the interior with objects gathered from seafaring adventureslike seashells, knotted rope, faded maps, and handwritten letters from a bygone era. You can also invert this idea by filling the entire background with objects, leaving a distinct void in the center shaped like a symbol or icon. For instance, scatter sewing tools across a canvas but leave a heart-shaped area clear to suggest love, care, or nostalgia. These creative contrasts spark interest and draw the eye in unexpected ways.
Using Composition, Color, and Shape to Reinvent Visual Harmony
Color theory plays an essential role in guiding the emotional tone of your flat lay images. Incorporating a thoughtfully selected color palette can bring unity and rhythm to a composition. Try choosing three to five related hues and build your scene using objects that fall within those tones. To make the composition even more dynamic, cut out geometric shapes like circles, rhombi, or trapezoids from cardstock and use them as abstract bases for your items. Think of slices of lemon placed atop canary-yellow triangles, next to tea sachets nestled in envelopes of warm amber. These color blocks help anchor the eye and create a cohesive visual story that feels both vibrant and intentional.
To add depth and a surreal touch, explore ways to alter the dimensionality of your flat lays. One subtle yet effective method is elevating certain props using transparent acrylic sheets or clear stands. This technique gives a floating effect, making selected objects appear to hover above the surface. Use this to your advantage in whimsical themes, like floral arrangements bursting from ice cream cones. Position the cones to point downward, giving the illusion that gravity is pulling the floral bouquet upward rather than down. This touch of visual magic is not only eye-catching but also emotionally uplifting. Adding a chalkboard surface as the base can further enhance the whimsical nature of your setup. Use chalk to draw flavor names, fun doodles, decorative lines, or even pseudo-technical blueprints to blend fantasy with realism.
The possibilities for storytelling expand when you allow yourself to lean into playfulness. Incorporating elements of whimsy and humor can infuse your images with charm and make them more shareable, especially on social platforms. Try spelling out short words or phrases using unexpected objects like cherries, jelly beans, flower petals, or even puzzle pieces. Once the word is in place, complement it with surrounding elements that match the theme. The word "Sweet" formed from cherries, placed above an ice cream cone with sprinkles cascading like confetti, instantly communicates a sense of delight and celebration. These compositions appeal visually and emotionally, merging wit with aesthetic appeal.
Infusing Emotion, Action, and Imagination into Your Scenes
Flat lay photography is unique in its ability to capture movement through the suggestion of action, even while remaining a still image. A great way to build narrative tension is by showing a moment on the verge of unfolding. Picture a crumpled piece of paper lying next to an old-fashioned typewriter, with a matchstick held just above it, hinting that it may soon be set aflame. This kind of storytelling introduces conflict and decision, making the image feel cinematic and deeply human. Including a hand mid-motionreaching out, holding an item, or adjusting somethingcan bring an additional layer of authenticity and draw the viewer further into the story.
Serene compositions, by contrast, use stillness and balance to evoke calm. A tea mandala made from different leaf varieties, beads spiraling around a peaceful figurine in meditation, or morning light falling on stacked books with a sleepy cat figurine nearbyall of these speak to the beauty found in quiet moments. By playing with lighting, shadow, and symmetry, you can communicate tranquility and mindfulness without using a single word.
Balance your portfolio with images that explore both ends of the emotional spectrum. Contrasts in emotion give your work depth and range. Consider setting up a flat lay where a busy, chaotic collection of objectsopen notebooks, tangled earphones, empty coffee cupssits beside a pristine corner featuring a candle, a fresh plant, and a clean to-do list. These juxtapositions don’t just look appealing; they tell relatable stories of tension and release, chaos and clarity.
Even the smallest prop has a role to play in the larger narrative. A solitary feather may symbolize freedom, fragility, or flight. An open envelope with dried flowers peeking out could speak of forgotten love, missed connections, or simple joy. When you think of each object as a character in a visual tale, the entire composition becomes more intentional and emotionally charged.
In flat lay photography, success comes not from simply filling the frame but from orchestrating a symphony of visual cues. Every object must earn its place, and every placement should have purpose. Take inspiration from poetry, where each line adds nuance, rhythm, and feeling. Imagine your flat lay as a visual sonnet, with every element acting as a verse. Let your props evoke curiosity, nostalgia, and joy. Encourage viewers to linger, look deeper, and find meaning between the lines.
Ultimately, the heart of flat lay photography lies in its power to freeze emotion and story in a single image. It invites us to observe, imagine, and feelall from a top-down perspective. Whether you're capturing the essence of a memory, a dream, or a whimsical idea, let your creativity take the lead. The frame is your canvas, the objects your words. Create not just a picture, but an experience your audience will want to revisit again and again.
Elevating Flat Lay Photography Through Symbolism and Abstract Storytelling
As flat lay photography evolves beyond seasonal stylings and balanced aesthetics, a new realm awaitsone where every frame becomes a stage for metaphor, mood, and visual poetry. This chapter of your creative journey calls for a transformation in thinking. Rather than arranging objects merely for symmetry or color harmony, you now sculpt meaning, distill emotion, and allow your compositions to whisper stories too abstract for words. The flat surface becomes a portal, not just a platform.
Imagine capturing the notion of time. Instead of pointing a camera at a clock, evoke temporality through decay and rhythm. Picture withered petals curling into a spiral, an antique pocket watch paused forever, sand leaking in delicate trails from a shattered hourglass. These aren't just props. They are symbols of impermanence and the inevitable drift of moments into memory. The photograph becomes less about depiction and more about suggestion.
When approaching emotion, shift from concrete subjects to tonal impressions. Think of sorrow not just as a story but as a palettea visual atmosphere. A flat lay embodying melancholy might feature old letters with softened ink, a chipped teacup resting on cracked porcelain, and light so dim it feels like dusk on a rainy day. Joy could erupt in a contrasting burst: scattered citrus slices casting vivid shadows, confetti frozen mid-air, paint tubes uncapped and wild across a sunlit surface. Each emotion is translated through color, texture, and rhythm rather than explicit narration.
This expressive power allows flat lay photography to function as a mirror for inner life. Imagine building a visual diary, not with words, but with items that express your mental and emotional state. If you’re feeling fragmented, frame mirror shards beside torn journal pages and mismatched keys, creating an image of dissonance and introspection. If curiosity defines your mood, populate your composition with magnifying glasses, vintage globes, dried flowers under bell jars, and pages from old science books. These still lifes carry the weight of autobiography. They speak of questions, reflections, and quiet awakenings.
Crafting Layers of Meaning Through Metaphor, Space, and Contrast
Flat lay, at its most poetic, becomes a kind of visual riddle. The objects in your frame no longer need to serve a literal purpose. Their meanings can evolve, shaped by cultural nuance, personal memory, or abstract interpretation. A tangled coil of string might suggest complication or emotional entanglement. A single, closed lock may represent secrecy, protection, or unresolved questions. Place a bird feather next to an empty cage, and you speak of freedom delayed, dreams unrealized, or the tension between hope and captivity.
This symbolic layering invites your viewer into a meditative experience. The longer they linger, the more they uncover. Your composition transforms into a conversation, open-ended and nuanced. It asks rather than tells.
One method to deepen this conceptual dialogue is through your use of space. Negative spaceoften underused in flat laybecomes a potent storytelling tool. Center a single, unusual object within a sea of emptiness, like a lone earring resting on a velvet backdrop or a miniature boat adrift on rippling silk. These compositions conjure solitude, longing, and vast internal landscapes. The emptiness isn't just space; it’s emotion rendered visible.
Contrast is another rich avenue for symbolic interplay. Juxtapose organic and inorganic textures to suggest harmony or dissonance. A blooming rose beside a rusted bolt. A patch of moss encroaching on cracked concrete. A perfectly ripe pear nestled against a tangle of circuit boards. These unexpected pairings challenge the viewer to consider the tension between technology and nature, permanence and decay, manmade precision and organic chaos. The flat lay becomes not just a scene, but a dialogue in visual language.
Even the placement of light and shadow plays a role. Sharp contrasts may invoke drama or conflict, while diffused lighting might soften the tone and evoke nostalgia or serenity. Let your lighting decisions complement the story you’re telling. Soft morning glow for memory, harsh spotlight for inner conflict, golden hour for warmth and longing. These details weave layers into the visual poem you're creating.
Telling Visual Tales and Shaping Identity Through Object-Based Narratives
Flat lay’s potential stretches even further into the world of allegory and conceptual portraiture. Instead of representing an idea directly, let your composition whisper a myth, hint at a fable, or resurrect a story from the subconscious. Reimagine the legend of Icarus not through wings or the sun, but with subtle clues: melted wax from extinguished candles, golden beads scattered like ambition gone astray, feathers half-burned and curled. Set them in a cascading layout that mimics a fall from grace. The story emerges not through text, but through texture and symbol.
Similarly, The Little Prince can live again in miniature. A porcelain rose placed on a dusty globe, a fox figurine half-hidden among the folds of cloth, and a small chair turned away from the viewer. These elements create a visual parable that tugs at childhood memory and philosophical longing. Through carefully chosen objects, you distill entire narratives into a still image.
Conceptual self-portraits allow for deeply personal exploration. Instead of appearing in the frame yourself, let the objects speak for you. Arrange meaningful artifactsyour grandfather’s pocketknife, concert tickets from your first love, a passport bearing the marks of travel, a pressed flower from a long-forgotten hike. Arrange them into the outline of your silhouette or the shape of a heart, a compass, a map. The result is a photograph that tells who you are without needing a face.
Raw, unexpected textures can elevate your storytelling even further. Step away from pristine and curated props to include items with real-world grit. Let broken typewriter keys scatter across old parchment, let dirt smudge the edges of your perfect grid. Let wax drips streak down a folded map, let thread knot and tangle with intention. These elements breathe honesty into your layout. They ground it in imperfection and vulnerability, which are often the most compelling parts of any story.
The beauty of this stage in flat lay photography lies in its ambiguity. You’re no longer illustrating, you’re evoking. Not everything needs to be explained. In fact, the most hauntingly beautiful compositions often leave space for silence. That empty chair, that dim shadow, that object slightly out of placeall of these whisper to the viewer, inviting introspection and interpretation.
As you experiment in this realm of abstraction and symbolism, embrace the idea that meaning is fluid. What feels like sorrow today may appear as serenity tomorrow, depending on the light, the angle, or the gaze of the viewer. Your camera becomes less a tool for capture and more a brush for painting emotion, memory, and imagination.
Flat lay photography at this level is not about perfection. It is about resonance. Let your scenes breathe. Let them ask questions. Let them feel human. By stepping into this symbolic and conceptual approach, you turn everyday objects into myth, emotion, and metaphor. Your photography transcends trend or style and becomes something timelessa frame filled not just with things, but with meaning.
Curating Identity Through Flat Lay Photography
Flat lay photography, in its purest and most personal form, is a mirror to the self. Beyond visual appeal and aesthetic arrangement, it becomes a silent autobiographical journey. Each object you choose and every composition you create serves as a quiet fragment of who you are in that moment. This photographic practice gradually weaves together a timeline of creative identityan evolving archive filled with recurring themes, favorite tones, and symbolic arrangements.
Begin by deeply observing your body of work. With time, you'll notice subtle but consistent patterns emerging. Maybe there's a color palette you gravitate toward, like earthy neutrals or jewel tones. Perhaps you repeatedly incorporate certain objects such as vintage cutlery, dried florals, or aged paper. Your lens may naturally favor minimalist space and clean symmetry, or it might lean into the busy charm of maximalist storytelling. These repeated choices are not arbitrary. They are visual signatures, markers of your inner narrative expressing itself through still life.
As your collection of images grows, start to build thematic clusters. These curated series may each tell a different storyone rooted in memory, another shaped by dreams, a third steeped in domestic rituals or spiritual reflection. Creating deliberate photo sequences allows you to give structure to your visual voice. The result is more than a series of standalone frames. It becomes a cohesive gallery of thought, where each image builds on the emotional cadence of the last and sets the stage for the one to follow. Through this form of visual storytelling, still life photography transforms into a deeply personal form of creative expression.
Flat lay also offers a profound opportunity to explore heritage and cultural lineage. Whether it's your grandmother’s embroidered tablecloth, a handwritten family recipe, or ancestral keepsakes passed down through generations, these artifacts carry memory, emotion, and history. Arranging them into thoughtful compositions not only preserves their beauty but also immortalizes the stories they represent. These visual homages connect you to your roots and honor the continuity of family traditions. Every object becomes a witness to time, a portal through which history is remembered and shared.
Evolving Creativity Through Practice and Reflection
Flat lay photography, when approached as a long-term practice, naturally fosters creative growth. This evolution is often subtle but becomes visible when you return to your older work with fresh eyes. The act of revisiting and reinterpreting past compositions allows you to track your journey and refine your style. What once felt complete may now appear cluttered. What once seemed sparse may now evoke power in its restraint. Over time, your visual language matures not through complexity alone but also through the ability to convey depth with simplicity.
This practice of self-reflection deepens your connection to the creative process. Each new session becomes an opportunity to layer current emotion and insight onto an existing theme. You may photograph the same object years apart and tell an entirely different story, simply because you have changed. This is where the richness of flat lay truly shinesit allows your perspective to shift, expand, and reveal.
Creative constraints can be powerful tools in this evolution. Far from limiting your potential, they can ignite it. By setting boundarieswhether it’s using only five objects, sticking to black and white tones, or working with only natural lightyou force yourself to think differently. These limitations sharpen your focus, challenge your habitual tendencies, and often lead to unexpected creative breakthroughs. In restriction, new possibilities arise. You become more aware of detail, light, shape, and emotion.
Props, regardless of their perceived value, take on significance when charged with meaning. A half-filled cup, a worn-out book, a broken clasp from a beloved necklacethese items tell stories. They speak not just to what they are but to the moments and emotions they represent. When carefully arranged, they transcend their ordinary forms and become vessels of feeling and memory. The true magic of flat lay lies in this transformationturning the mundane into the poetic.
Using photography as a daily or weekly practice can also become a form of meditation. It’s a way to pause and notice what resonates with you in a particular moment. You might find yourself capturing the fleeting softness of morning light, the quiet of an unfinished letter, or the elegance of a crumpled linen napkin. These small acts of attention are not only aesthetically powerful but also emotionally grounding. Your camera becomes a tool for mindfulness, your flat lays a visual journal of mood, memory, and meaning.
Sharing Stories, Inviting Connection
As your personal archive grows, the impulse to share your work may arise. Sharing your flat lay images isn’t merely about showcasing skill or receiving praiseit’s about opening a door to connection. Your compositions, infused with personal meaning and quiet emotion, might resonate with someone else on a profound level. What you create from a place of truth can echo in the hearts of others, offering comfort, inspiration, or even a sense of being understood.
Think of your work not as an end product but as an invitation. Each image invites the viewer into a shared space of memory, curiosity, or emotion. Whether you're portraying the quiet sanctity of a morning ritual or the playfulness of a dream sequence, your photos become bridges between individual experience and universal feeling. They stir something in others precisely because they come from a place of authenticity.
This series of visual chronicles becomes even more meaningful when seen as part of a greater story. It’s not just about composition, lighting, or aestheticsit’s about capturing the essence of a lived moment. Flat lay photography becomes a ritual of observation, a quiet practice of honoring the overlooked. In your hands, objects cease to be still. They become storytellers, memory-keepers, and poetic witnesses to the life you're living.
Let yourself evolve with the practice. Continue to explore new themes, embrace new constraints, and reinterpret familiar objects. Stay curious, and let your instincts guide your creative process. This journey isn’t linear, and that’s where its beauty lies. There will be moments of clarity and times of uncertainty. Both are essential to the rhythm of artistic growth. Flat lay photography becomes far more than a visual technique. It becomes a lifelong archive of your creative evolution, a way to map your emotional terrain, a chronicle of quiet transformation. Through it, you express not only what you see, but how you feel, how you remember, and how you hope. It is still lifebut never static. It is your personal narrative rendered in objects, shadows, and light. A story only you can tell, and yet one that so many may find themselves reflected in.
Conclusion
Flat lay photography, at its most profound, is not simply the art of arranging itemsit is the act of distilling life into a single frame. Each object, carefully chosen and intentionally placed, becomes part of a broader visual language that speaks to memory, identity, and emotion. As your journey through flat lay evolves, so does your perspective. What began as a pursuit of symmetry and aesthetic beauty transforms into a practice of storytelling, a meditation on moments both grand and subtle.
Through seasonal palettes, symbolic arrangements, emotional textures, and evocative use of light and shadow, you learn to narrate the unspoken. You begin to see the quiet poetry in a teacup, the longing in an open book, the joy in a scattering of petals. These images are more than compositionsthey are visual echoes of lived experiences, silent reflections of inner worlds.
Flat lay photography invites you to slow down, to observe, and to create with mindfulness. It’s a medium that honors imperfection, celebrates simplicity, and encourages authenticity. In this stillness, emotion flows freely. The stories you tellwhether whimsical, nostalgic, abstract, or deeply personalhold power not only because they are artfully arranged, but because they are honest.
Ultimately, flat lay is more than a photograph. It’s a visual journal of your becoming. A testament to your voice, your vision, and your capacity to find beauty in the everyday. In shaping these frames, you don’t just capture objects you capture meaning. And through meaning, you connect.
