and some people think my backgrounds are busy!
It's not quite the same thing. You are usually photographing plants and flowers, so isolating the subject is more important in that type of work.
In a larger scene, like this one, the background can (and does) lend context to the shot. The other issue is purely technical. On this trip I am shooting a mFT sensor (2.0x crop factor), which is smaller than your Sony APS-C sensor with its 1.5x crop factor; the Panasonic GX7 with a f/4 - 5.6 14-140mm lens. This means I lose two full stops of depth of field versus my full-frame D800. I other words, it's as if I were shooting an f/8 - f/11 28-280mm lens; the depth of field is quite deep and there really isn't much one can do to blur the background with that equipment.
That is one reason I like shooting full-frame, but I simply didn't have enough luggage capacity to carry the bigger camera on this trip.
S'pose that's what you call a take-away, or, if you're Scottish, a 'carry out'.
A bit like pulling into McDonald's and collecting to go, really.
Now that is an ancient front-end loader.
I thought elephants eats mango, not palm leaves...but these are good shots .
Excellent images .....