G'day Paul. Can't beat a few photos of our lovely wildlife! I think #1 has good DOF. The image just needs a bit of editing to get the colours and contrast balanced and maybe some selective sharpening on the butterfly. #2 just needs a shadows boost on the head of the left duck, to show more detail in that shaded area. The colours in the water look fabulous - nice work. Just a hint when photographing animals that are moving, try to add some positive space so they have somewhere to head in to. This can be done in post or in camera. Another quick thought (and this is subject to opinion), see how you like the image of the Pacific Black Ducks flipped horizontally - this is a more natural look as our brains seem to read from left to right both in text and images. I've done a couple of edits to show what I mean.
I'll put my brain in the "not normal" basket, no surprise there some would say. But I prefer the right to left image of the ducks. Gary
Hi Isac Thanks for your comments. I had to crop the duck picture back to remove some very distracting, messy reeds, that's why the pic is a bit tight. I'll take on board your left to right suggestion in future though.
That's ok Gary, you can have that view. It's all subjective anyway. Plenty of pros and cons. I just thought I'd throw it into the mix.
I thought the depth of field was nicely done in the butterfly picture. The bokeh is smooth and draws your eyes to the subject. I’ve been playing with bokeh lately, especially with my 50mm f/1.8 Lens.