Ten p.m. the night before, my cell phone rings. The number is that of a producer I work with in San Francisco. He's asking if I could be in a small town south of Fresno before sunrise to shoot a cotton harvest. The best directions he could give me were GPS coordinates, six hundred miles away from my home in Southern Utah. I knew nothing about harvesting cotton and now I was being paid to produce a story about it and about Calcot, a company that manages one of California's biggest agricultural exports.
前天晚上十点，我的手机突然响了。号码是我曾经合作过的一位旧金山制片人的。他问我能不能在日出前赶到夫勒斯诺南边的一个小镇去拍摄棉花采摘。他只给了我一个离我在南犹他的家六百英里（约九百公里）远的GPS坐标。我对棉花采摘一无所知。但现在却有人雇我拍摄一个关于棉花采摘和加棉公司，一家加州棉花出口量最大的公司的故事。
It is at this point for any documentary photographer where the contexts of the story need to be identified in order to form questions, create photographical approaches and select the right equipment for the job.
在这种时刻，任何纪录片摄像师都需要弄清故事的语境，以便提出问题，设计摄影手法，以及选择合适的设备。
Contexts are the realm of where the message, the intended communication takes place. There are five - physical, psychological, social, cultural and temporal.
语境是信息，即传播意图实现的地方。语境有五种：实体语境，心理语境，社会语境，文化语境和时间语境。
The physical context is where the story takes place. For this assignment, the story was somewhere near Fresno, California.
实体语境是指故事发生的地点。这个任务的实体语境就是加州夫勒斯诺附近的某个地方。
The psychological context is the desired objective of the story on the audience. This is typically described by the client. This one wanted a commercial that would run nationally about the hard working cotton farmers of California, creating an empathic appeal with the audience along with raising awareness of the cotton industry.
心理语境是故事希望在听众那里达到的目的。这一般由客户决定。本片希望做成全国播出的广告，让人们了解加州辛勤工作的棉农以及加州的棉花工业，唤起人们的共鸣。
The social context for this story deals with relationships - the role of the cotton farmer and that of the Calcot representative, as well as the relationship between Calcot and buyers of their product, like Levi-Strauss, Nike, and WalMart. This project needed to put Calcot in a position of credibility and prestige.
这个故事的社会语境与各种社会关系有关——棉农的角色，加棉公司代表的角色，以及加棉公司与像里维斯，耐克，沃尔玛这些买家的关系。这个片子要表现加棉公司的信誉和声誉。
The cultural context deals with the value of cotton in consumer goods in the US, as well as with the people who work in the industry. The cultural values of hard work, families and teamwork were to be represented in the media.
文化语境指的是棉花在美国消费商品中的价值，以及在这个行业中工作的人。努力工作、重视家庭，团队合作等文化价值都要在片中得到体现。
The temporal context, like how the physical context is the location of the story, deals with the timing of the story. For this assignment, the temporal context dealt with the season of cotton harvest, as well as with the actual day of the harvest, depicting a day-in-the-life, the chronological flow of the story.
就像实体语境指故事的地点，时间语境指故事发生的时间。对这个片子，时间语境和棉花采摘季节，以及采摘的具体日期有关，要展现活生生的一天和故事的发生顺序。
What does this have to do with documentary photography? Everything.
这跟纪录片摄影的关系是怎样的呢？密不可分。
An analysis of any story's context provides background and a starting point to produce and collect images. It encourages an art directed approach, suggests colors and filters, how to move the film plane, how to manipulate the focal plane, what focal lengths lend themselves to best capture the context of the story.
对故事语境的分析能提供背景以及为拍摄和收集素材提供抓手。它带来一种以艺术为指引的路径，提示对颜色和滤镜的选择，相机的运动，焦平面的处理，以及什么样的焦距最能抓住故事的语境。
I assembled the gear, a compliment of fast lenses that would enable wider exposure ranges in early morning and evening light, two cameras that would expedite the process since I'd have to work quickly to keep up with the harvest, and a SteadiCam mount that would allow me to move and follow smoothly on rough terrain.
我收拾好设备，一些能在早晚拍摄较大曝光范围的大光圈的镜头，两台摄像机用以提高拍摄速度，因为我们得跟上收割的速度，以及一台斯坦尼康机架，这样我可以平稳地在田地里移动和跟拍。
Below are screen shots from the raw footage. This was shot in 720p, long before 1080 had come along.
下图是素材里的一帧。这张画面的解析度是720p，那时还没有1080的技术。
The central valley of California has a perpetual diffusion of light due to its thick atmosphere of humidity, dust and smog that accumulates from coastal urban areas - the physical context. This combination creates a natural filtration and color influence, an infusion of amber that saturates the rest of the color palate. I wanted to use this artistically, so I shot everything in existing light using only white bounce reflectors.
加利福尼亚中部山谷的阳光永远都很散，因为那里空气的湿度很大，再加上海岸边城市集聚的灰尘和烟雾——实体语境。这种组合造成了一种天然的滤透和对颜色的影响，所有颜色都充斥着琥珀色的色调。我希望把这种色调艺术地利用起来，所以我拍摄所有东西时只用既有光线和白色反光板。
The image above is an establishing shot, giving context to the physical aspect of the story. I shot it wide like this, then medium, then close up as the combines moved to my film plane.
上面这张照片是一个初始镜头，展现故事的实体语境。当联合收割机向相机这边驶来，我以远景开始，然后中景，然后特写。
The image below is from the footage that introduces the farmer of this particular field. It's close on him, just a bit higher to create a background of his product, and he is illuminated by rays of the rising sun as they shine through the valley's atmosphere. The light is soft creating subtle shadows while picking up pigments of flesh tones, denim and the cotton he is wearing.
下面这张素材引入了这片田地的农场主。它采用了特写，位置稍高用以框入背景里的棉花。他被透过山谷大气的朝阳照亮。这种柔和的光线带来细微的影子，渲染着他的皮肤，牛仔服和棉花的颜色。
Then the Calcot representative arrived at the location and I immediately put him into the shot, capitalizing on the golden hour light I had, creating a relationship - the social context. His placement is back behind the farmer, suggesting support and backing.
然后，加棉公司的代表来到了现场，我立刻把他放进画面，用好阳光的黄金时间，来建构一种关系——社会语境。他站在棉农的身后，表现出一种支持和后盾的感觉。
I should note as a photojournalist, I never direct emotion, I never say "Look this way," or "smile." I'm there to capture their story, not the one I think is their story.
需要说明的是，作为图片记者，我从不导演情绪。我从来不会说，“看这边”或者“笑一笑”。我去那抓拍他们的故事，不是摆拍我认为应该发生的故事。
And, of course, the product, the cotton. The depth of this is shallow, bringing out the detail of the bloom and its thorns along with the ruggedness of the hands.
当然，还有棉花。浅景深带出来棉花的细节和粗糙的手。
This is a transitional shot, compressed detail - telephoto on the combine - shallow depth of field to focus on the product.
这是一个过渡镜头，细节被长焦镜头压缩，浅景深使得棉花成为焦点。
The story included the processing of the cotton. Automated cotton gins run around the clock during harvest. Again, existing light is used, this time with tough contrast with the burning highlights allowing depth and detail in the shadows.
故事还包括对棉花的处理，自动轧棉机在采摘季节日夜不停。还是既有灯光，但这次是刺眼的高光使得阴影处的细节得以呈现。
During the evening's golden hour of light - the temporal context - I shot another farmer, a family man. This was composed to increase empathy of the value of family and hard work - the cultural context - standing in the field, the combine in the background, the evening sunset light illuminating.
在晚上光线的黄金时间——时间语境——我们拍了另一位棉农，一个顾家的男人站在田地里，以收割机为背景，被落日的余晖照亮。这是为了引发人们对家庭观念和辛勤工作——文化语境——的共鸣。
A transition, closer on the family, with the telephoto focal length giving a compression to the shot. The film plane was just below the cotton line to bring in some foreground elements.
作为过渡镜头，全家的近景，长焦镜头使画面得以压缩。
Their Calcot representative is introduced in the same physical context.
他们的加棉公司的代表出现在同样的实体语境里。
Another close up on hands, clearly hard-working and involved.
另一个手部特写，显示着勤劳和对他家棉花种植的关心。
The sunset shot, literally. Every story needs one, a temporal hint of the end of the story, wide, inclusive and with this one I was lucky enough to have the farmer walking away from the day's harvest.
真正的落日镜头。每个故事都需要一个，用来预示故事的结尾。远景，包容，而且我非常幸运地捕捉到了棉农在一天的采摘后走远的画面。
There is a pattern to my shooting, regardless the story - wide, medium, closer, extreme close up. This creates a palate of shots that any good editor can use to create segments that tell the story. Each shot, though, is backed up by an analysis of contexts - the place, the people, their story, the feeling, the objects of that story, their relationships, the values, the time that passes - all considered in my decision-making process in shooting the story.
这是我拍摄的规律，不论什么故事——远景，中景，近景，大特写。这些镜头可以让任何一个优秀的剪辑师制作出能讲故事的段落。尽管每个镜头都经过了对语境的分析——地点、人物、他们的故事、感受、故事里的事物，他们的关系，价值观，时间——所有都在拍摄的决策过程中得到考虑。