Aperture/dof

Dealing with the extra first:  I took two photos one of a white piece of paper and one of a black piece of paper and this is the result which shows that the camera - on auto, tries to make the overall image it sees into an approximate 18% grey!! 

The main image is taking the same flowers at F4.5 and F22 using my wide angle lens.  The largest and smallest apertures possible with this lens.

F 4.5 is a large aperture which has a small depth of field, such that the trees in the background are blurred.

When you want to see a long way you screw up your eyes so F22 is a small aperture which has a large dof such that the trees are nearly in focus!