By 10:30am the gusting winds (another staple of a north Texas spring) blew the clouds away and we had sunny skies. Off we headed with Rooney and my husband for an extra set of hands if needed. I knew the tree would provide us with some open shade so I could achieve nice results even with the sun high in the sky.

While open shade provides a break for the harsh overhead sunlight, I knew that Rooney's dark face would likely loose some detail if I didn't give it a little boost with a flash. Since I didn't have to light a large area, a speedlight was perfect for the job.

When photographing under trees with the sun high in the sky, you're going to get dappled light underneath. Sometimes you can find an evenly shaded patch to place your subject in, but even if you can, puppies rarely sit still for very long so you'll likely need a Plan C. Despite being filtered through the trees, you can see small areas of harsher lighting on his fur and on the grass. Especially that large bright spot right in front of him. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the lightest part of an image so we want that to be the subject's face, not a patch of grass.