Good to see everyone learning new stuff! That’s what this is all about.
Back to the goat question from Sarah. Eyes draw attention! While the foreground goat perfectly illustrates the concept I was talking about with creating depth, it actually feels like what should be the most prominent part of the picture is out of focus. It gives me the over-all impression of the picture being “mis-focused”.
This would be an excellent opportunity to do the exact inverse! A tack-sharp, so-close-I-feel-like-petting-it subject in the front with the less intimate, thus less important, subject in the background. It would still create depth because the two subjects belong together, but you might say the priorities are straight.
But then keep this in mind. What if the foreground goat had it’s head turned toward the background goat? What would you do then? Focus on the eyes of the background goat! Suddenly, the background goat becomes more important than the foreground goat because eyes draw attention. The viewer would automatically follow the gaze of the out-of-focus foreground goat straight to the eyes of the now-main subject, again drawing connection between foreground and background which creates the illusion of depth.
So, that’s what I would suggest. By the way, where did you take that shot? Looks like some rugged wilderness out in the middle of nowhere . . .