I can't shoot people. Example included.

[Bebulamar]

I was rushed. This was a last minute "hey can you take my photo real quick before I leave?" type of thing....

Being rushed has never worked well for me either.

But if we have the time why do we need all those auto features?

 

[Trever1t]

Perhaps a bit of controlled practice is in order. Set up a teddy bear or whatever you want (I like inanimate objects with eyes) with foreground and background staged objects. Shooting wide open practice your technique. I find personally, shooting wide open at near to medium distance fairly simple but at the distance of your example a near miss is quite common. I may have shot that at f4.5 or so.