It's Almost Pink Flamingo Time Again

In honor of the Pink Flamingo parties in our neighborhood during the summer months, here's a guy from Sea World.

EXIF is as follows:

Nikon D80
Nikkor 70-300VR at 105mm
f8 for 1/200 sec
ISO 200
Shutter priority mode

How did I get the out-of-focus background at f8? It's an illusion. First, the telephoto lens compresses everything, which helps throw the background out of focus. Secondly, I shot the flamingo at a downward angle, and used a circular polarizer to eliminate the glare from the water in the pond he was standing in. The bottom of the pond was a brownish concrete, so there's an illusion that the background is out of focus. It sort of is, but the combination of little detail in the background, the compression of the lens, and the elimination of glare from the water (thanks to the polarizer) makes it look like I used a faster (i.e. a 2.8 or better) lens.