Photo and caption by Tom Pitmon

During preparations for a religious festival at the Kapaleeswarar Temple in March, a Hindi woman made a kolam pattern with rice flour in front of a shrine and lit a small oil lamp as an offering. I came around a corner and saw her just as she bent down to light the lamp, but by the time my camera was ready to shoot, she had moved and I caught her sari swaying as she stood. A priest washing the shrine poured water that washed away this scene about thirty seconds later.

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India