@fbailey Felicity, it's not foolproof, but I use the manual focus point selection. On this Powershot camera you simply touch the LCD view screen where you want the focus to be, on my grown-up camera I use the manual selection of AF focus point facility. I then put the camera on the ground, and use a self-timer to minimise the chance of camera shake when I'm fumbling around with the shutter release. Aperture Priority mode, aperture wide at f/2.5 in this shot to get the shallow dof. Hope this helps?
Ian