Is it possible to take a picture with a bright background AND a bright subject?

I don't know if this is possible, but I'll try to explain my question as best as I can! I'm a somewhat new photographer and I've been looking through other photographers pictures (Mostly my cousin's stuff. She is very professional.) But I can't seem to figure out how she gets her pictures to look a certain way. Almost all of her pictures have very bright backgrounds, BUT, the person she is photographing has a clear sharp face that isn't darkened by the harsh light in the background.
She doesn't use any flash or reflectors so I'm kind of in a stump. I did think at one point that she just uses a editor to edit all of the brightness and such, and if that is the case, does anyone have any tips on doing that? I would love to hear them.
My second thought was just the camera she uses. I'm not quite sure what kind of camera she uses. All I know is that it was a very expensive camera and blows mine Way out of the water. Because I'm just starting off, I'm on my first entry level DSLR camera. I'm the Nikon D5100. Below is a link to a set of pictures that discribes what I'm talking about quite perfectly. If anyone has ANY tips, tricks, or advice, Please let me know!

http://www.facebook.com/...078&type=3

Yes it can be done. If your are not a professional, you will have to play around with the two subjects. Also I'm thinking yo will have to take a close up of the bright subject to clarify the bright background.

And THAT is exactly why they developed a SPOT METER. A spot meter measures the exposure at a specific small area of the frame, so you can adjust to make the exposure of the FACE exactly right regardless of anything around the face which my be over or under exposed.

Then, you combine exposure with aperture, so you reduce the depth of field so the background becomes a blur while the face is exactly in focus. The overexposed background becomes blurred so the face remains the center of attention in the frame.

A light meter by itself is a good thing, but in combination with other elements in the frame becomes a killer combination to center the focus exactly where you want it to be in spite of other negative elements which may be in the frame.

You need to do your homework on frame COMPOSITION…

The proper way to do it is to use fill flash. Any pro will tell you that.

She might have shot RAW and just bumped up the brightness of the shadows during post processing. It's very easy to do.

It has nothing to do with the camera in either case. It's the way you use it that matters most. An entry level camera in the right hands can take equally good images compared with a more expensive camera body. The quality of a photograph is down to 70% skill, 20% lens quality, 10% camera body. Owning an expensive camera does not guarantee quality photographs.

The composition isn't good on most of your shots. It's letting you down badly. Also there's too much processing on some.

It's called "fill flash".
http://en.wikipedia.org/...Fill_flash

If you look closely at the eyes, you will see white dots in the irises. These are reflections of the flash. I don't know what she told ya, but she used flash in some of these. The way this is done is you meter the outside (ambient) light, get the shutter speed and aperture. Then using a flash meter measure the ƒ number of the amount of light hitting the subject from the flash. You can use the flash guide number as well for the ƒ value and adjust aperture as necessary. Your shutter is set to the value determined in the ambient reading. The trick is adjusting the flash unit until the output matches the ambient light. This way the flash just pops some light onto the face - as it is the same brightness as the ambient light it does not cause bulletproof black shadows behind your subject, on the face from the hair, etc.

On the images with the dog and the pond, she metered the subject perfectly and exposed correctly. They were done very well. A spot meter could come in very handy. Go to bhphotovideo.com and look at light meters. They aren't cheap, but if you take very good care of yours it will last for many years. Get a meter that is capable of reading flash. Some have spot attachments - a device that allows you to read a very small amount of the frame (such as a cheek highlight).