With wildlife, sometimes a photographer doesn't have a lot of choice in the background. Like this cardinal, it landed on the branch and I was stuck where I was, as well as stuck with the background.
I was looking to merge the pink dogwood and the brilliance of the cardinal, but because of his landing spot, all I got was a dogwood branch growing out of his head. A longer depth of field would have made it worse, and the lens was already wide open, giving me as little depth of field as possible.
Any suggestions on how to make this work? OK, aside from sitting for a day and a half waiting for him to land two inches to the left or right...
In spite of what you say about the photo, it's not really a bad one. The cardinal's color is so much brighter and a contrast to the pink dogwood blossoms, and the blurred background does not detract from all that color. This is a nice photo.
Here 'ya go:
http://www.escrappers.com/lensblur.html