POTD - Fill the Frame

My mom had gotten this dress for "S" about 6 months ago at a consignment shop for her to play dress up in. She's really not into that anymore so I threw it in a bag to give away. After all the talk on 2peas about consignment shops and Trash the Dress sessions, I dug it back out. It was pretty tight around the top on her but she was willing to try a lil' girls trash the dress session. I figured this was a good opportunity for me to practice metering for white. Ha, ha as you can see I need a lot more practice! I just cannot find the happy medium. I spot meter off the dress and everything else is dark. I meter off my hand the dress is blown out. I tried the f16 sunny rule in the total sun and that didn't work either. Any suggestions for me?

I have also tried to work on fixing my color without using actions! So please cc me on that too!!
I know this one is really funky. I couldn't get it right. She was in complete shade and I had WB on shade and it ended up really warm. Oops I lied here! I fixed the color myself and then I ran a Warm Tone action on this one.

Man this photo scares me LOL! She's almost 9 and acts like she's going on 21! Too much Next Top Model watching going on here.

She got totally disgusted here because someone from the parking garage whistled at her. Her comment, Oh my gosh that's disgusting to whistle at an 8 year old. LOL! So we moved on and went to City Hall and the Water Fountain. Oh and I love her little painted toes showing from the bottom of the dress here!

I have a ton more of these but haven't really had time to look through them. I think we might have to redo the fountain shots. The sun was really high and I got a lot of dark shadows on her face. I need to make a new rule or tie that darn reflector around my waist so I always have it with me!!