Didn′t your mother always tell you to never shoot in bright noon-day sun? Well, I found myself on Assateague Island, Virginia, stalking its famous icon The Assateague Lighthouse.

Composing the image under some welcome shade, I delighted in the way the leaves of this tree framed the lighthouse itself. With a little tweaking of my composition, I placed the lighthouse in the wide open blue negative space. Lovely, but JUST ONE PROBLEM!

The leaves looked positively dark and silhouetted against all that bright blue. (Mother was right!) So, I flipped open my on-camera flash and began a dance with two adjustments: FILL FLASH and EXPOSURE COMPENSATION.

On the one hand, I was turning down the flash output using the lovely +/- flash compensator, and on the other hand I was darkening the sky slightly using the exposure +/- compensator. I was very chatty and consternated as I juggled to get the balance just right.

I had drawn a crowd of utterly amused tourists who thought I had blown a gasket. I was happy to amuse, and happier still to get the shot!