A Road Less Traveled. - DPChallenge Forums

09/03/2008 02:46:31 AM · #1

I am saddened in a way that an empty road as seen by the literates ruled the way in this challenge.

The road less traveled is about â��LIFEâ�� the good roads and the hard roads, the roads we take through life and adapt them to our lifestyle, many of these are known as roads less traveled.

How many of you have said at different times in life to yourself, Been there not going down that road again, each time we have traveled a different road that is often less traveled.

To name a few

Discipline â��Self Control
Gratification
Responsibility
Love
Dependency.
Serendipity
Compassion
Happiness
Truth
Honesty
Faith
Sincerity.

This is the way I was taught while growing up, and helped me through the many adversities that I have encountered in my life.

Having had a life death experience in December 2007, many of these were shown to me from many different people, including DPC members, in many different ways.

Many of you will say â��Up Yoursâ�� and be critical in your opinion of me in the way I perceived this Challenge. I do photography for self satisfaction and after 4 years do not have a ribbon, but have enjoyed the whole journey.

I believe DPC to be the greatest way of learning from a large world wide membership and all the different ways photography is seen as an art form both literally and laterally,
Not directing any personal attacks on any one or group.

But I am only one in a very large world, and this is my perspective of The Road less Traveled.

My 3 top selections for this challenge are (in my order of preference) Photographically.

37th A NEW ROAD By

Judi
The road of Romantic Love, These two have not yet traveled.

63rd THE PRIESTHOOD By

Tap10
How many take this road?

4th FIRST PAY THE LADDERMAN By

Coley
The road of Honesty.

Not detracting in any way from the ribbon winners.

Spelling error.

Message edited by author 2008-09-03 02:50:17.

rinac

Pentax K20D

Pentax SMC-F 50mm f/1.7

09/03/2008 02:59:10 AM · #2

The yellow ribbon went to this:

goodman and it doesn't have a road in it. Well none that I can see. The viewer is left to make up their own "road" here :)

09/03/2008 03:27:01 AM · #3

Originally posted by rinac:

The yellow ribbon went to this: by goodman and it doesn't have a road in it. Well none that I can see. The viewer is left to make up their own "road" here :)

I agree with you but if you take in what I have written, I could not fit this to my perception of a Life road less traveled.
The photo by all means is excellent and deserves it's position in the challenge I voted a 7 on it

The Road Less Traveled is the title of a number of works. Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is sometimes mistaken for "The Road Less Traveled"

but the phrase doesn't come from The Road Not Taken, a poem by Robert Frost, Wikipedia.

And at the bottom I have stated I am not detracting in any way from the winners

Message edited by author 2008-09-03 03:28:36.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

09/03/2008 03:51:35 AM · #4

Originally posted by BrianR:

Many of you will say â��Up Yoursâ�� and be critical in your opinion of me in the way I perceived this Challenge.

Well I'm not gonna say "Up Yours", Brian, but will respectfully disagree on some of your interpretations. Judi's terrific wedding shot for example, you used the qualifier "These two have not yet taken" - well that could apply to anyone taking any road. Marriage though, is certainly NOT a less traveled road.

I would agree with your priesthood image choice as an example - I thought the same thing when I saw it and I was also disappointed at all the literal road images. (Mine doesn't count because, like many of mine, it wasn't a serious entry and I knew voters would be very literal in their interpretations)

I also don't agree with your Ladderman choice, mainly because it is actually a literal road and I must be missing some reference cuz I didn't get it. Great image though.

As for your own entry - I didn't see that as either a literal or figurative (life choice less traveled) example. Compassion is a road very often taken. In fact, I would say that in spite of the perception of people is, MOST people are compassionate. Same applies to most of the concepts you listed.

In summary, I agree that the literal interpretations all missed the intended concept of the topic, but I also think some of yours do as well. All my opinon, of course. For what it's worth.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

09/03/2008 09:30:26 AM · #5

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

Originally posted by BrianR:
Many of you will say â��Up Yoursâ�� and be critical in your opinion of me in the way I perceived this Challenge.

Well I'm not gonna say "Up Yours", Brian, but will respectfully disagree on some of your interpretations. Judi's terrific wedding shot for example, you used the qualifier "These two have not yet taken" - well that could apply to anyone taking any road. Marriage though, is certainly NOT a less traveled road.

I would agree with your priesthood image choice as an example - I thought the same thing when I saw it and I was also disappointed at all the literal road images. (Mine doesn't count because, like many of mine, it wasn't a serious entry and I knew voters would be very literal in their interpretations)

I also don't agree with your Ladderman choice, mainly because it is actually a literal road and I must be missing some reference cuz I didn't get it. Great image though.

As for your own entry - I didn't see that as either a literal or figurative (life choice less traveled) example. Compassion is a road very often taken. In fact, I would say that in spite of the perception of people is, MOST people are compassionate. Same applies to most of the concepts you listed.

In summary, I agree that the literal interpretations all missed the intended concept of the topic, but I also think some of yours do as well. All my opinon, of course. For what it's worth.

Thank you

Art Roflmao I Appreciate and agree with a lot of your opinion.

Message edited by author 2008-09-03 09:33:16.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

09/03/2008 09:41:05 AM · #6

Well, I have to admit, I was scratching my head over your comment on my own entry.

You said "The road of Dependency". Once I saw some of your other comments, I saw the way you were viewing the entries. I am curious however, how you interpreted my entry to relate to dependency?

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

09/04/2008 04:30:00 PM · #7

Originally posted by yospiff:

Well, I have to admit, I was scratching my head over your comment on my own entry.

You said "The road of Dependency". Once I saw some of your other comments, I saw the way you were viewing the entries. I am curious however, how you interpreted my entry to relate to dependency?

your image said to me you were waiting for the sign, which means to me you were dependent on it.

smichener

Nikon D300

09/04/2008 05:14:17 PM · #8

Brian,
I'm also curious because you raised the issue of dependency with my image

That rail in the image is there because the trail is actually about two feet wide and it drops pretty steeply about 250 feet to the left.

I get your point about the seeming more literal interpretations of the challenge entries. Mine is an absolute literal interpretation. But I think we have to be careful about not reading too much into the images we are viewing or expecting them to be something that they are not.

After all, maybe my image is a cautionary story about staying to the right and avoiding the left at these treacherous times. Perhaps it's political commentary. And maybe I just made all this up.

Each viewer recognizes what appeals to them in the images they like and votes get cast. It's been said many times that eye candy type photos do well at DPC. In my opinion that's fine because it promotes improving technical skills which is what I'm after. Just my two cents.

Ecce_Signum

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/04/2008 05:21:19 PM · #9

BrianR renamed mine 'road of Serendipity' and I quite like it. Guess I missed the single 'l' in traveled' so was just thinking road (hence the score) so guess I should have gone with its original title and 'passing places'? ....

Still not sure if it was the subject matter or deliberate over processing that brought in a 5.4?

CJinCA

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

09/04/2008 05:31:05 PM · #10

Brian, there is more than one way to interpret "A Road Less Traveled" and since I know there are many who take the topics literally, I was really not surprised that the top finishers had an actual road in their picture. As far as your image is concerned, I thought it was very well done but for me, Compassion is not a road less traveled in my experiences with the people I have come in contact with. My husband is a family doctor and I see compassion in him and other people in health care and the other emergency service fields all the time.

I must say whenever I hear the phrase "road less traveled", I think of Robert Frost's poem because the last lines are:

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Since this was published in 1916, I'm inclined to believe that the current authors using this phrase in their works have his lines in mind. Maybe Robert Frost was not the first to use that phrase, but he's the one I remember. I'm not even sure they teach this poem in the schools anymore so maybe many of the DPCers aren't familiar with it. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that it's very likely that most of the voters who might not be familiar with his or others works using the phrase as a metaphor, would undoubtably, take it literally.

Good luck with your next entry, I'm sure it will be good, whether it scores well with the masses or not! :-)
CJ

ambaker

Google Glass Google Glass

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

09/04/2008 06:45:52 PM · #11

Originally posted by CJinCA:

Actually, that poem is "The Road Not Taken", by Robert Frost in 1915. I personally find the following from Washington State University quite interesting.

"This poem is usually interpreted as an assertion of individualism, but critic Lawrence Thompson has argued that it is a slightly mocking satire on a perennially hesitant walking partner of Frost's who always wondered what would have happened if he had chosen their path differently."

So... Perhaps the untrod roads pictured by the masses here, were really what Frost had in mind all along. And all the other esoteric meanings, are simply that which we have wished upon a very pretty poem. And were never really there, nor intended by the author.

BAMartin

Apple iPhone 5

09/04/2008 06:47:53 PM · #12

Originally posted by smichener:

Brian,
I'm also curious because you raised the issue of dependency with my image

That rail in the image is there because the trail is actually about two feet wide and it drops pretty steeply about 250 feet to the left.

I get your point about the seeming more literal interpretations of the challenge entries. Mine is an absolute literal interpretation. But I think we have to be careful about not reading too much into the images we are viewing or expecting them to be something that they are not.

After all, maybe my image is a cautionary story about staying to the right and avoiding the left at these treacherous times. Perhaps it's political commentary. And maybe I just made all this up.

Each viewer recognizes what appeals to them in the images they like and votes get cast. It's been said many times that eye candy type photos do well at DPC. In my opinion that's fine because it promotes improving technical skills which is what I'm after. Just my two cents.

This image reminds me of a video that I have watched over and over. This is truly the Road Less Traveled El camino del Rey

Message edited by author 2008-09-04 18:48:45.

Ecce_Signum