It takes a lot of time and effort to feed a thousand monks every day, and this woman is one of those that work in the monastery’s food preparation area. Part of her job is to sift hundreds of pounds of rice each day, removing the impurities before cooking it for the monk’s mid day meal. I used a normal shutter speed of 1/60th of a second to make this photograph, which was able to stop, yet also blur, a mass of rice in mid-air at the peak of its leap from the sifting tray. While the unsual fountain of moving rice grains is the focal point of this image, there are other important factors that make the picture work. Her shirt and huge hair clip are similar to the rice in color. The way she is able to grip the ground by spreading her toes from a squatting position is informative. And the intensity she brings to the task is critical – she takes her job seriously and does it well.