Remove the z-index value.
I would also recommend this approach.
HTML:
<header class="main-header" role="banner">
<img src="mybannerimage.gif" alt="Banner Image"/>
</header>
CSS:
.main-header {
text-align: center;
}
This will center your image with out stretching it out. You can adjust the padding as needed to give it some space around your image. Since this is at the top of your page you don't need to force it there with position absolute unless you want your other elements to go underneath it. In that case you'd probably want position:fixed; anyway.