I waited some time before releasing the shutter on this one—not for the perfect moment, but for the right weight of silence before the sound. The act of ringing the temple bell isn’t just functional; it’s ritualistic, a gesture loaded with centuries of repetition. The photo had to feel like that: a still image of an act in motion, reverberating beyond its frame. I composed the shot dead centre to honour the symmetry of the structure. Japanese temple architecture lends itself to this kind of alignment—balanced, precise, and timeless. The bell, massive and inert, dominates the top third of the frame, while the man below draws the eye through motion,…