I took the above photo of the Yellow-eyed penguin on New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic Enderby island. The penguins were walking down a grassy slope towards the shoreline. I took a few photos similar to the one on the right, but did not like the background. I usually use a telephoto lens, such as my 500mm f/4 to try to separate the subject from the background. By keeping the aperture wide open you can achieve a very shallow depth of field which will blur out the background, like in this photo on the right the grass behind the penguin.  But I still did not like the image. To improve the situation, I moved my tripod to get part of the sea into the background. Still keeping the aperture wide open, focusing right on the penguin, made this a much better composition with a nice even background.

Run with the Wolfies: Digital Photo Workshops, Upcoming Photo Tours:  2011: May 20-22, 2011 Orcas Island Weekend Workshop; Palouse June 18-24, 2011; Brazil & Pantanal July 4-20, 2011; November 8-21, 2011 Patagonia; December 9-19, Antarctica In the works: AFRICA: Zambia, Namibia, Malawi; Mongolia; China (Pandas, Tigers, Xian)

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