This weekend, my sister Denise and I had to return to our ancestral home in Hereford, Arizona to attend a memorial service of a dear family friend, one of our mother's best friends.

Our mother passed away in February and since then, we have been getting her house ready to rent. It's located in a lovely rural spot, at the base of the Huachuca Mountains in Southern Arizona. But for the first time, the house is empty with not a stick of furniture so my sister treated us (for my birthday, too) to a weekend stay at Casa de San Pedro, a gorgeous bed and breakfast near the banks of the San Pedro River. All of this area is a birder's paradise and with the recent monsoon rains, the land was lush and green.

The little inn is idyllic. It is run by Patrick and Karl, who make fresh pies every day! Yes, pie, every day!

OK, so back to why I'm writing this. Besides pie, they have a puppy! A buff-colored golden retriever named Woody, who is the official greeter and host. Now I brought along my little Fujifilm X-T1 for just my travel camera and didn't have lights or reflectors or anything but I did want to snap a few portraits of this puppy.

Believe it or not, outdoor photography while the sun is really bright is hard to do without lights. You might think the complete opposite. Hey, it's sunny out, should be a piece of cake! Or pie. Now I'm hungry again. But actually no, bright sun creates harsh shadows and for people and pets, it's not good. Without flash or a reflector, shadows can make the eyes turn into black holes. And if the subject's back is to the sun, it's hard to balance the subject, which would then be shaded, with the bright background. Plus, you lose the catch lights, which make sentient subjects come alive. So external light is good in these situations.

So without further ado, here is Woody, prince of Casa de San Pedro.