Depth of Field

So I've had this fancy new camera for months now. It has an awful lot of buttons and settings and those that weren't immediately clear to me have only been explored in the most haphazard fashion. I can do super closeups, and lots of good basic shots, but I was looking for the ability to have the foreground in sharp focus while blurring the background.

I learned there's a term called depth of field . Wikipedia gives mountains of information on the subject, not to mention mathematical formulas which make me twitch. Apparently I have a lot to learn as the term depth of field sounds more fitting to my ear as the title of a volume of poetry. But I've figured out the combination of buttons and numbers that allows me to take photos like this:
I love how the background recedes allowing the main image to take center stage.

I've been having the best time playing around with the camera this weekend. Some of my favorite shots taken in my yard and at the farmers market:
Note the green bee on the sunflower below. I started seeing them for the first time this summer and no one believed me for weeks . Now I have proof!