One of the advantages of a long telephoto lens is that it when you shoot a subject that is relatively close to the camera – say within 50 feet – the background goes extremely out of focus. The crowned crane pictured below was taken with a 500mm f/4 super telephoto plus a 2X teleconverter (that's an amazing 1000mm), and you can see how the bird stands out so clearly. The contrast between the sharp head and the soft background is what makes this shot so strong. The remarkable looking face and coloring are responsible, too, but I never could have taken such a compelling portrait without the long lens. This was taken with the largest aperture on the lens so I could avail myself of a fast enough shutter speed (1/400th in this case) to freeze any movement. With this kind of magnification, a fast speed was required.
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