2025-MAY / JUNE NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the May & June 2025, Newsletter.  Note that the May and June Newsletters are being combined.  This is because we were out of the country for over half of May on the trip to Ireland and have been playing “catch-up”.  We’re about there, so here we go.

I’m still working hard on the West Trip photos to get them all processed and into the website.  In the meantime, you can check out about 250 of them on my Instagram site (daleblakephotography1).  Look for Road Trip Pt 1, Pt 2 & Pt 3.

In May, we spent 10 days in Ireland and made a trip around the southern part of the country.  We started in Dublin, where we rented a car and made the trip across the country to Galway on the west coast, then down the coast to the shoreline locations like Dingle and multiple others.  The coast of Ireland is spectacular, and the people of Ireland are wonderful.  We visited the Waterford Crystal factory where the beautiful handmade crystal was created.  I was able to photograph some of the displays and a couple of them are shown in the “Ireland Preview”.  Check out the photos that were posted while we were there on the Instagram site (daleblakephotography1).  Look for Ireland and Ireland 1.  Lower in the newsletter we also have a section on Ireland which previews a few of the Ireland photos that we will be releasing soon.

We will have some new products coming soon and we’ll be telling you more about them as we release them. I’m working on a calendar for 2026 which will showcase many of the local photographs in our files.  I’ll be publishing some of the calendar photos in the upcoming newsletters in Stories Behind the Photos.  If you have any suggestions about which photos we use for particular months, let us know so we can put them on our list of potential photos.  If we use the photo that you suggested, you will get a free calendar and a signed print of the photo.  You can check out the gallery photos on daleblakephotography.net, the photos in Instagram, daleblakephotography1 and in our newsletter.  Please let me know which photo you are referring to with the photo number, description and where it is located.

We’ll also be offering grouped prints featuring botanical, nature and other photos.  Typically, these will consist of an 8×10 framed print with four to six smaller framed prints (5×7 and 4×6) that are grouped with the larger print.  You can make your own arrangement to suit the display space that you have available.  If we have other photos that you would like to have in a group, let me know and we can put them together for you.  We can deliver them as prints only or as a framed set.  Call or email us to discuss your personal needs.

With the weather warming and the plants now blooming, we are doing more location portraits for families and individuals.  We can make your portraits in the location of your choice, at home, in a park or on the beach.  We offer print packages and framed prints for your finished photos.  Call and schedule your session.

We are now offering Real Estate Photography services.  If you plan to sell your home or other real estate, call and set up an appointment to have your property photographed.  We can also provide aerial photos without having to use a drone.  This is a more reasonable approach and, in most cases, can be done quickly.  Contact us for more information and rates.

If you call us and we don’t answer, please leave us a message and we’ll return your call as soon as possible.  We may be in a session or in some cases, unidentified calls are identified as spam and sent to voice mail.  We check the voicemail regularly and will return your call as soon as possible.

We have a new area of the website gallery called “Pathways”.  These are photos which show pathways leading to the water, beach, or other interesting areas.  We’ll be adding photos to this section regularly.  Check them out in the Gallery and let us know what you think of this new website section.  We also be adding another new area called “The West”.  This area will be showcasing the photos from our West trip.

This area of the newsletter is where we’ll tell you more about some of the photos and how they were made.  If you have questions about these photos and the technical and photography details, email or call me and we can discuss them.  If you get my voice mail, please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Blue Heron In Flight

I recently purchased a new telephoto zoom lens for my Nikon D850 and went out to find a good test subject.  I looked in several places and made a few photos but still wanted to see how it performed with a subject in motion.  I checked the Lions Bridge in Newport News and found just that.  There were several Great Blue Herons feeding and were cruising back and forth down the waterfront.  This one made a perfect pass in front of me.  As you can see, the lens test was successful, and I am delighted with this new addition to my equipment.

LOOK UP:

You never know what photo may be waiting above. This was the skylight in one of the Castles in Ireland.

IRELAND PREVIEW:

As noted above, we spent ten days traveling through southern Ireland and photographing the beautiful scenery and landscape.  Below is a short preview of the photographs that are now being processed for addition to our website.  There are many more coming.

UPCOMING TRIPS AND ADVENTURES:

Now that we’re back from Ireland, we’ll be in the camper van, headed to the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Parkway for some mountains and waterfalls. Later we’ll be planning a trip to the Blue Ridge in North Carolina to photograph approximately fifteen waterfalls.  The North Carolina trip may move to Fall depending on how busy the near future is.

In July, we’ll be back in Florida for a couple of weeks and will be photographing in the Vero Beach areas and further south if time allows.

Our usual beach trips to Hatteras will continue through the summer and early fall.

This Fall, we will be heading in the camper van to Niagara Falls, Mackinac Island and on to the Dells.  Can’t wait to photograph the falls.

More fall trips are still in the planning process.  More on that next month.

Tell your friends about Dale Blake Photography and forward the newsletter to them.  Anyone can sign up for the newsletter by emailing us daleblake1@icloud.com, or daleblake@daleblakephotography.com. You can also text us at 757-880-0725 or 757-236-3440.

WEBSITE INFO:

Be sure to check the Website (daleblakephotography.net) and click on the Instagram link.  Scroll to the bottom of the Home Page and subscribe to the Webpage and “Follow” the Instagram link, (daleblakephotography1) to keep up with where we are going and what we are doing.

You can click on the Instagram link 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, however, we have recently regained ownership of our original website, daleblakephotography.com.  Very soon you will be able to access our website with either of these.

Be sure to check them out.

Our website is handled now by Agile Web Designers who are doing a tremendous job of putting the new website together and making sure that it is always top notch.  Thank you, James, Marlon, Eric and the entire team at Agile Web Designers.   If you need or know anyone who is interested in setting up a website, contact them and I believe that you will be glad you did.  Call me if you have questions about my experience with them.

Until next month;   Keep a steady hand, open eyes and be ever ready for the shot!

(Bonus Note:  You can’t catch the photo if you don’t have a camera with you!  Most all of us carry a cell phone and the cameras on the modern phones do a phenomonal job of capturing the photograph.  Know your phone and how to use the new features on it.)