Thanks to Alice and Bob for your kind and helpful comments. I would have liked a higher score although I do realise there is some blur... maybe too much for the voters.
To Bob - Haha, thanks! The reason I said it is harder than it looks is that I had a number of balloons fall onto the pin in my hand and it didn't pop but your point is taken. I should have said "... and taking a good photo is harder than it looks"
Hello and welcome to DPC. I note you have been a member for just a short time and already have entered several Challenges. You are among a number of South Africans who have found the DPC site lately and it is a pleasure to have you aboard.
This interesting and fun image received a good score from our voters and rightly so. Yes, for a moment, I too thought you were balancing a powdery puff on your model's hand, but your exploding balloon message came through quickly. So about all I can say, on behalf of the Critique Club, is that this is a well-done stop action image, and congratulations for nailing it.
I look forward to seeing more of your work on DPC.
Silent Shooter, while i would totally agree with all you comments in reply to dbordelon's comments.
I will have to disagree with your photo comment "Popping a balloon filled with water is harder than it looks!" it is in fact very easy to pop a balloon however capturing a stunning picture of it is very tricky indeed. You however have done this brilliantly, so congratulations :-)
I'm new to DPChallenge, but I fail to notice where the stopped motion is on this photograph?
Rough calculations indicate that the water is moving at around 800 inches / second. yes there is some blur but you still get the impression of stopped motion... well I do anyway and thats what mattered to me.
I wasn't going to go and spend lots of money on sound triggers, external flashes etc. I did the best I could given the conditions I was in.