202 5 – March Newsletter

Well, we’re nowinto the thirdmonth of2025 and planning the upcoming trips andactivities for this year. It’s going to be a busy one. I am now working full time on DaleBlake Photography and looking forward to the future with it.

We will be updating the website with some new features andwill be showing quite a fewof the West Series of photos that were taken last year during thesix-weektrip out west.We traveledin our camper vanto North Dakota andfrom there we went south throughSouth Dakota,Idaho,Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico,photographing the National Parks. We traveled a lot of miles (a total of 10,320 miles in60 days) at a rapid pace and were able to capture several thousand photos of thelandscape and wildlife. We’ll be showcasing these in the upcoming newslettersand onthe website.

This year, we’ll be increasing our activities to include moreworkin the areas of RealEstate Photography, Senior Photos, Save The Date Photos, Commercial and IndustrialPhotography and our Fine Art Photos.Also, we will bedoing our usual photos of theFirst Communion Photographs and Conformation Photographs for the Churches as wellas Baptism photos on request.This year we’ll be offering a package of photos for thosewho don’t care to print their own. These will be highquality prints which include (1) 5x7vignetted photo, (1) 8.5×11, (2) 5×7 and 9 wallet size photos of the same pose.Othersizesand quantities of photos are available for orderif you choose to add to a packageor create your own.

This is a new area of the newsletter where we’ll tell you more about some of the photosand how they were made.

Stormy Beach

We were at the beach for a weekend in November last year and the weather wasn’texactly beach weather as we usually thinkof it. A storm front had moved in as we weretravelling downto thebeach,and I got the trailer set up just before the rain started.Weknew that it was going to be an all-nightrain,so we went out for an early dinner andcame back before it got too bad.It didn’t disappoint us. It fully tested thewatertightness of thecamper,but we stayed dry and slept well. I went to bed thinking Iwas not going to get any photo opportunities at all this trip. But you never know.

In the morning the rain let upand finally stopped. It was still overcast but we grabbedour raincoats and headed for the beach. We found heavy surf and overcast skies thatmade for some interesting photos. We got our photos anyway. I find that there isalways a photo opportunity ifyou wait and look for it. Sometimes it will be big thingsand sometimes, very small things.I always enjoy using black & white photographs toshow the dramatic skies and water during a storm.The photos below have just beenposed to the Website (daleblakephotography.net)

Pamlico Sound Sunsets and the Tree

For the last five years I’ve been photographing the tree below and each year it changesa little more. It was dead when I first saw it, and each yearit loses afewmore of itsbranches. This year it is down to the last two branches. It’ll be interesting to see whatnext year brings and how long it can hang there.We’ll see!!

Ragged Island Sunrise

I was on the way to Surry one morning in late November, when I was stopped for abridge opening on the James River Bridge. Off to my right, I could see the sunrisebeginning behind the Shipyard. I grabbed my camera and began shooting a few shotsof the skyline over the shipyard. I could see that the sunset was going to be a goodone. At that moment, I had no idea how good it would be.

The bridge closed and traffic started to move slowly. I headed toward the south end ofthe bridge with the rest of the traffic.I looked over my left shoulder and saw what wasbeginning to happen. It was going to be a blood red sunrise! I sped up as fast as trafficwould allow and sprinted off the bridge toward the turn into the Ragged Island parkinglot. Traffic was very kind, and the line of slow-moving cars stopped to let me cross. Iparked in the lot and grabbed my camera and ran toward the water and found anopening in the tree line for the shots below. It was well worththe effort!!

Snowy Ranch

The first snow this year came inJanuary 2025 andwas 3” to 4” of snow.(Not much foryou folks from the north, but that’s a lot for us southern types.)It came during the night,and we were up early in the morning to get toLanexa, VA,to photograph the horseranch areas and see if we could find a suitable photograph for ourupcoming calendarfor 2026. After photographing severallocations,we found the right location and madethe shot below. Sometimes there is just so much to take in all at once that you can’tsee the forest for the trees. Interestingly, we didn’t see this photograph until we hadturned around and headed back in the other direction. Always lookatevery angle tofind the right picture.

UPCOMING TRIPS AND ADVENTURES:

April will see us in the Hilton Head, SC, area for a few days. Not sure exactly what we’llfind there, but it’s always an adventure. As they say on TV, “Film at 11”.

In May, we’ll be traveling to Ireland for a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to somegreat Landscape Photography opportunities and we’ll be showing you these as soon aswe get back and complete processing them. This should be a very interesting trip sincemy heritage is Irish.

In July, we’ll be back in Florida for a couple of weeks and will be photographing in theVero Beach and St Agustine areas.

Our usual beach trips to Hatteras will continue through the summer and early fallThe fall trips are still in the planning process. More on that next month.

NEW WEBSITE:

Be sure to check the Website (daleblakephotography.net) and click on the Instagramlink. Subscribe to the Webpage and“Follow”the Instagram link,(daleblakepohotography1) to keep up with where we are going and what we are doing.

You can click on theInstagramlink on the website at the bottom of the Home Page.You can also reach the Instagram site by using “daleblakephotography1”.

Note that our website is now DaleBlakePhotography.net

Do not try to log intoDaleBlakePhotogaphy.com.When anyone tries to log into it theymayget a Malware Notification.

We have now moved our website to Agile Web Designers who have done a tremendousjob of putting the new website together. Thankyou, James, Marlon and the entire teamat Agile Web Designers.If you need or know anyone who is interested in setting up awebsite, contact them and I believe that you will be glad you did. Call me if you havequestions about my experience with them.