Out of focus pictures

[ToorboCharge]

Looks like there was movement in the pic, your shutter speed was probably slow, you can up the iso, or set it to shutter priority and lastly have your vr turned on, that should help.

 

[bsinmich]

As you get closer to the 300mm end you lose depth of field, especially at fairly close distances. You have several different planes in that photo and there is almost no way to get all of them sharp at the same time. A wide angle setting on a lens give terrific depth of f ield and a tele has a lot less. The closer you are to the subject the less depth of field also. A larger lens opening (smaller f number) will also give less depth of field than a smaller lens opening. Even automatic cameras have a learning curve.