I've given a few lessons here about how to make the background of your images soft and blurry by using your f-stop controls. One of the things I think people forget about is that depth of field works behind AND in front of your subject. You focus on the subject using your camera's auto or manual focus (in the case below, a rock out in the ocean). Your choice of f-stop will decide whether or not the background AND foreground are also in focus.

Image 1, the foreground is blurry

f-stop 2.8, shutter speed 1/8000 of a second, ISO 400

Now, it's your turn! You have an assignment this week. I want you to go out and take sets of images like this one. Focus on a subject further away and put an object on your foreground. Experiment with making the foreground object in and out of focus. I really would love to see your results. Post links to your images in the comments section or add your images to my Monday Lesson Flickr pool.  Good luck!