Perch tree, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Old Rolli TLR, Tmax 400, Scanned from Ilford MGIV print. The fog rolled in all day last Sunday (1-17-99), but my biologist friend and I still observed 62 different species of birds. Two Cormorants and an Anhinga didn't want to share this perch with another Cormorant.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), January 19, 1999

Answers

The image has simple lines, it is elegant and I like the feel of it. However there are two things that IMO are holding it back: 1) the tree on the rhs (it should have been eliminated when you took the picture), and 2) the contrast.

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooks@mindspring.com), January 19, 1999.

The first time I scanned this I accidentally cut off the right tree and I liked it. I did some cropping on the left side but left the 2nd tree to see what comments I got. The photoshop version didn't have that obnoxious banding of the fog. Does anybody know what causes "banding" of large areas of similar tones and how to avoid it? As for print contrast, I tried #1, no filter, #2.5, and #4. I liked #2.5 the best but I'm open to suggestion.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), January 19, 1999.

The banding on the picture is caused by the compression of the file to get it below 50K. Jpeg compression involves consolidating similar colors into one. The higher the compression ratio (usually shown when you save the image), the larger the radius that is used, and the more likely you will have banding like this. You will see this banding on many highly compressed jpegs, especially where there is a broad expanse with little color variation, such as a cloudless sky or (in this case) dense fog.

-- Jeremy Kindy (kindjd01@wfu.edu), January 20, 1999.

I agree with Bahman, and also feel better about the image when the large tree is not quite so centered in the frame. (Cropping the right tree does the trick.)

-- Jon McNeill (jon_mcneill@hp.com), January 20, 1999.

Larry, I like the fog in the background and the bird on the wing. I too feel it would be a stronger pix with the big tree pushed more to the r. of the frame;but as I recall, there is nothing much but open water on the left and I think you may have already cropped it out.

I know that tree well. A lilypad shot I submitted earlier was taken within a few feet of it. I've seen a Bald Eagle perch in the back tree but It flew before I could get into position. Regards PS, Keep posting Rolli TLR shots.

-- Mike Green (mgprod@mindspring.cm), January 20, 1999.

Mike, Thanks for you comment. I was hoping that someone would mention the "bird on the wing". I have 9 other frames with the perch birds in other positions, some that I like better than this shot. However, I feel that the bird on the wing gives a spark of life to this low tone image. We saw 4 Bald Eagles that day, but they were out of the range of my little 400.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), January 20, 1999.