Wave–Particle Duality

The sun was bouncing its way in through all the clouds, splashing parts of the street with bright light and leaving others in cool shadow. My camera was struggling to keep up. It didn’t know whether we were taking extremely bright photos or carefully-exposed dark photos, and it kept landing somewhere in-between: highlights completely blown out and shadows dark and featureless.

The pressure was too much. I only had one day left in Barcelona and I had to finish this editorial. I had most of the writing done, but the photos had all been the same jumbled mess of contrast. My whole angle on the city had been how the many cultures mixed with a constant flow of tourists, leading to a smooth mixture of everything. I had hoped for an overcast day, or better yet, some rainy, foggy, atmospheric weather, so that I could find a visual representation of this physical gradient of experience. No such luck.

Now I was staring up at the clouds, trying to predict when the sun would dip behind a cloud of the perfect thickness to dampen its harsh light. It had happened 20 minutes ago, and I had missed it because I was too busy reviewing photos, hoping that some of them had been good enough to use.

I spotted a promisingly transparent cloud, and searched for a good angle while I waited for the sun and the cloud to align. The light in front of me dimmed perfectly, but I realized I was too far away to get the shot I needed. I stepped forward, eye pressed against the back of my camera. Brakes squealed, but not quickly enough.