My favorite collection of images that I came across this week was a showcase of high speed photography .   Modern technology is allowing photographers a whole new lease of life as they are challenged to stretch their creative abilities to keep up with advances in cameras, processing and printing.  Images like these would previously have required a high degree of attention to details such as lighting, camera stability, shutter speeds and f stops, and would likely still have resulted in blurring or 'ghosting' which the photographer would have used creatively as a deliberate part of the style.  Now, however, high speed images can show the same clarity and macro details as any other image,  opening up a whole new realm of possibilities for the adventurous photographer.

A high degree of technical know how is still necessary to get amazing images such as these,  with lighting and composition still crucial to the success and overall attractiveness of a shot.

My top two picks from the gallery are:

• The exploding water balloon,  which captures not only the rupturing of the sphere, and the droplets of water escaping but the ripples on the surface of the balloon as the rubber contracts.

• The lightbulb igniting, although I feel this shot is a touch premature, and for maximum effect I would like to have seen an image taken a fraction of a second later when the outline of thelightbulb is exploding. Although the flame might not be present in a later shot, a composite of the two images would have been amazing.  (Not that I am asking too much!)