Today we have yet another death of a water balloon. In this particular situation, the balloon was in a gold fish bowl.

Materials
A goldfish bowl.
A water balloon, blue.

Observation
This is an interesting shot. Primarily because the water is contained and cannot escape in the normal manner by which water likes to escape. The water, not being aware that it was trapped in a goldfish bowl, still tries to escape to no avail. Having failed to notice that it failed to escape the water continues about its business of playing with gravity in a not entirely unpleasing manner. The bubbles are neat too.

Materials
A black helium balloon filed with water.
A black background.
A background stand.
Some black invisiline rope.
A Katana.

Procedure
Hang the balloon from the second background stand setup.
From here you must perform the first Iai waza/kata. The first waza is a basic draw (nukitsuke) and cut (kirioroshi) from the lower left to the upper right (temple) followed by chiburi and noto (cleaning and returning the blade). For more information on the wonderful world of Iaido please visit the Japanese Cultural Arts Center.

Result
This shot turned out rather nicely. My cut was horrible, but the shot is pretty. It is most interesting if one compares the previous shot to this one and notices the similarities of the effect the blade has on the movement of the water. In both cases we see a clear deviation of the water caused by the blade. Even in this case where the blade penetrates no more than a half of an inch (it should have penetrated 3/4″). The shutter speed has reduced the motion blur sufficiently enough to allow all of this to be quite clear. I am awfully fond of this camera. Speaking of, I will be posting the review of this camera around the middle of this week.

Lighting
For this shot I decided on a backlight for the water. In this case it is the sun. This allows for nice, clear viewing of the droplets without an overly bright highlight.

Materials
A frozen water balloon.

Procedure
Fill a balloon with water, put it in the freezer. Peel, then drop!

Result
It is my intent to do several of these from varying heights. This one was dropped from approx 3.5′ – 4′. The balloon shatters very much like you would expect a large chunk of ice to shatter. Though it is interesting to see just how it shatters. The ice ball itself had several fractures that came as a result of the freezing process and you can see when it shatters that it breaks along those lines first. It have been experimenting with different freezing conditions in an attempt to get a ball sans fractures. Enjoy this one in the mean time though!

Materials
A yellow helium balloon filled with water.
Katana

Procedure
In this case I rigged the balloon to be hanging from a set of background support stands.
Strike the balloon.

Result
Interestingly we can watch the balloon buckle a moment before it breaks, this of course means my form was off horribly. But it does however provide for interesting still-framing. The other interesting thing to pay attention to is the way in which the water inside the balloon separates and also the way it curls on the leading edge. I will be repeating this in the future from an angle that allows us to see the water parting.

Lighting
The lighting on this comes from the sun, and from behind. Back lighting the balloon has some rather interesting effects, the primary of which is that all the droplets are quite clearly rendered. The other is that the water appears to greatly amplify the light (which makes sense if you take refraction and lenses into account). While interesting, I am not certain quite how useful this form of lighting is for this application.

Materials
A helium balloon filled with water
The standard fare of background materials.

Procedure
Instead of a vertical drop I thought a toss from the side would be interesting.

Result
I do so love it when water balloons distort themselves for our viewing pleasure. This one certainly did not disappoint in that regard. The water balloon can be seen undulating in a very odd fashion prior to its equally odd compression and explosion. The manner in which it hits the ground and compresses creates some very interesting shapes. In particular when it first hits and the top of the balloon (the first part to impact the ground) creates a shape that resembles the crown shape we see on water splashes. This is an excellent candidate for stepping through a frame at a time.

Today we have yet another death of a water balloon. In this instance the water balloon was static and was shot instead of being dropped.

Materials
A helium balloon filled to roughly 80% of capacity with water.
The standard fare of backgrounds.
Yet another wimpy BB gun.

Procedure
After determining proper placement and aim, shoot.

Result
The result on this shot is particularly interesting. We have a few things that are note worthy. First is the manner in which the skin of balloon tears as a result of the puncture. Secondly we have the behavior of the water at the point of impact. The ripping of the skin is interesting because it is not a simple split, instead it appears to split itself into thirds. Since the backside is not viewable it is hard to establish the precise pattern of the rip. Another interesting characteristic of the rip is the water that it pulls along with it. Similar behavior is also interesting to note in the impact point. One can see the water puckering and splashing outward in a manner similar to that of a drop of water splashing into a puddle. Another interesting thing to note is the length of time the water holds the shape of the balloon before collapsing and the manner in which it collapses.

Further Study
It would be interesting to acquire a four head camera for the purpose of capturing the balloon from multiple angles to determine the precise way in which it rips.