(Pics) Edward Horsford’s Controlled Chaos

An amazing series of photographs by Edward Horsford captures bursting water balloons at the exact moment of explosion. His images are carefully constructed, capturing vivid detail during a moment of chaos.

NPR reports:

“My camera is really the least important part of the shots,” Horsford writes in an e-mail. The trick seems to be in the timing of the flash. He sets a timer on his camera to take a long exposure of 1 to 2 seconds, and if the flash fires within that time, he gets an image. He uses a special gizmo with a microphone that triggers the flashes when it picks up a certain level of sound (i.e., the pop of a balloon).

Horsford usually uses a pin to poke the latex, and performs a variety of acrobatics to get everything in the right position without blocking the light or getting in the photo himself. And afterward? He writes, “I’m absolutely soaked and temporarily blinded!”

Edward Horsford

[via Doobybrain]