Erik, Stuart,
Let's stay civil in our exchanges. Posting in a forum doesn't always succeed in properly conveying emotions, so the intentions of remarks can be misinterpreted. I'm confident that Stuart's remark was intended with a bit of humor, but more so as a point of attention.
Obviously, when faced with a subject with both foreground and background detail, it is not always possible to avoid getting other (distracting) things in focus. The question is, how can we avoid that from happening, as it would most likely benefit the impact of the image.
One of the characteristis of OPF is that we can speak our minds, in a civil manner, and in return we can collect the benefits of the huge pool of knowledge. We can get pointed out things which may have escaped our attention, we can learn how others see an image without the personal involvement/prejudice we have ourselves, we can learn new methods of shooting/post processing, etc. When we have the intent to help and be open to learn from others, life becomes much more rewarding.
Cheers,
Bart