Hello, Pete Straser here. I have just found this site and find it wonderful. This shot was taken with a Moskva-5 6 x 9 format using Fuji 800 NHG II 1/50th at f/8. The lens is a 105 mm Industar. The shot was taken during a brief lull in a good sized storm in the Sierra Nevada foothills last January. It was taken in mixed rain and snow and became all together stormy one minute later. It is also the very first frame taken in my venture into medium format photography.

I have a framed enlargement at 14 x 21 inches and the detail is wonderful. For instance, there are 6 distinct bird nests in the bare cottonwood in the middle of the frame.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you, Pete

-- Pete Strasser (phytorx@lanset.com), October 06, 2001

Answers

I appreciate your enjoyment of your photo and probably would want it on my wall as well. But I can't even see the cottonwood let along the bird nests. The stronger web postings tend toward single subjects, graphic images and color contrasts, and not necessarily large format nature and landscape topics. Could you post a really large one somewhere and send us the URL?

-- warren (wkato@aol.com), October 20, 2001.

Thanks for your interest, Warren. I put a larger image here: http://www.lanset.com/phytorx/moskva2.jpg It is a 675K jpg file. Now that I look closer, it is an oak in the center of the image, not a cottonwood. (not to mention the lint on the scanner) Now that I know better, I won't post any more landscape shots, either. Best regards, Pete

-- Pete Strasser (phytorx@lanset.com), October 20, 2001.

Pete, not all of us agree with Warren (no offense, Warren). As long as we're discussing stronger shots, I much prefer to see good landscapes, or if it has to be another bird shot, at least a bird in context rather than full-frame.

Anyway, the photo here is good. The clouds add an interesting effect (though I would suggest putting some kind of frame on this, the effect of white clouds disappearing into white screen background doesn't work well). This would look great with autumn colors; it looks pretty good with winter colors as well. Welcome to medium format.

-- Christian Deichert (torgophile@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

I can't see what all the fuss is about, this is not much of a photo. It's muddy, has atrocious colour saturation and don't get me started on the composition. My advice to you, stay away from medium format.

-- Todge (adrphoto@optusnet.com.au), June 11, 2002.