When talking to approach control for the purpose of performing practice instrument approaches in VMC with a safety pilot, the pilot (and safety pilot) is required to "maintain VFR." However, the pilot is also required to follow the controller's instructions and vectors.
When maintaining cloud clearances in order to comply with the "maintain VFR" requirement, it is sometimes necessary to maneuver around, under, etc. small clouds. Sometimes the maneuvering involves a lot of small corrections: maybe a few thousand feet off course, or going under a cloud by 500 to 1000 feet.
Do controllers expect to be told every time a VFR aircraft in VMC has to maneuver around small clouds? What phraseology is required? For example, is "maneuvering to maintain VFR" sufficient, or do you have to state each turn descent/climb etc.? At busy approaches it seems like a huge annoyance to controllers to call with every little course correction/adjustment to maintain VFR, but perhaps that is what they expect.