2026-January & February NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the January and February 2026, Newsletter

Wow! We’re already into a new year. I can’t believe 2025 passed so quickly. We had a great year though. I retired from the job at Dominion and went full time with Dale Blake Photography. We’ve had an active year with lots of travel and adventure and, of course, a lot of photos. The website has grown this year and quite a few photos have been added to it. We also were able to recover the daleblakephotography.com domain from the folks who originally hosted our website, so you will soon be able to reach the website with either .net or .com. For now, use the .com address while work is being completed to combine the two addresses on the website.

I’ll now 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 you have available. If there are other photos that you would like to have in a group, contact me and I will put them together for you. I can deliver them as prints only, on canvas, unframed or as a framed set. Call or email to discuss your personal needs and the price of your grouping. Check out the section in this newsletter on Photo Group Sets. I’m also putting together sets for the Beach and the Mountains as well. These will show in the next newsletter.

I am 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. I can also provide aerial photos without having to use a drone using an elevated tripod. This is a more reasonable approach and, in most cases, a less expensive aerial photo and can be taken quickly. I am in the process of obtaining a Part 107 Drone license which will allow use of the drone as well for commercial purposes. Contact us for more information and rates. If you are a realtor, ask about my no cost trial photos and see the quality and service that I can provide.

I’m in the process of putting together a Basic Photography Training Program and several one-day workshops on locations locally. Let me know if you’re interested.

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

Check out the photos and stories in the sections that follow.

This area of the newsletter is where I’ll tell you more about some of the photos and how they were taken. 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.

Mattamuskeet Reflections:

I grew up in North Carolina on Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde County, in the town of Fairfield. Mattamuskeet Lake is a beautiful Lake and National Wildlife Refuge. It has a diverse range of wildlife and some beautiful scenery to photograph. I’ve photographed this scene many times and always knew there was a special photo waiting on this small island and tree group located about a quarter of a mile east of the causeway that crosses the lake. On this particular day, when I passed by it, the weather was very cloudy and overcast and the wind was blowing quite a bit, so I figured that it was a nogo for that day and passed it by and kept going towards Swan Quarter. About two hours later, I headed back home and as I crossed the lake, I noticed that the wind had laid down and the water was still. I sped up to get to the island before the wind came back. I pulled in and grabbed the camera and set up on the small pier at the pullover in front of the island. The clouds were dark and rolling and the reflection of the clouds and the trees on the water was spectacular. I photographed it for about thirty minutes and the photo above was the result. It’s not hard to see why I call it “Mattamuskeet Reflections”. It made a beautiful 11×17 framed photograph and it will be going to my website.

The Wonder of Black & White:

When I first started in photography at age nineteen, black and white photography was very common. Black and white film could be processed economically in a home darkroom and prints could be created easily. I had a darkroom a few years later and made many black and white photographs. I enjoyed working with the B&W medium and was facinated with what could be done with the images. I also found that these prints, when processed correctly, could make very dramatic photos. These two are a couple of examples of what I mean. The lion is at Lions Bridge in Newport News, VA, and I’m sure it’s been photographed thousands of times. This was my take on it. The small lion under the big one is actually on the other side of the bridge. The other one is at Hatteras Island, in Waves. This was made on a morning that a Nor’easter was coming in and the sky and water were amazing. This was truly a candidate for a Black and White Photo. This one is on the website.

Waterfalls:

I’m always fascinated by waterfalls. They have a way of mesmerizing you while you watch it. It has many personalities, depending on the time and day that you see it. I’ve photographed many waterfalls several times over the years and I get different photo every time. The first photo below is a photo of Moss Creek Falls located in Vermont. This was photographed after very heavy rain the evening before and the water was at full flow. It was beautiful!

The second one is at Shenandoah Valley Campground in Verona, VA. I’ve photographed it many times, but this time I got a very different result. It’s the only time that I’ve seen this. I call this “The Face In The Falls”. Look closely at the photo and see if you can see the face. Let me know if you find it. Some can and some can’t.

One Year Ago:

Last year, after a snowy night, Donna and I headed out to get a few snow photos. The photo below was one of the winners and is on the website. As I write this, the weather man is calling for snow and ice starting tomorrow. I wonder what adventure awaits this time and what photos will show up.

Aurora Borealis:

During our trip to Alaska, I had the opportunity to photograph the Northern Lights outside of Fairbanks. This turned out to be a cold but very exciting evening. The group that we went with picked us up at the hotel at 10:00 PM. We headed out to find the lights with this very experienced group who chased the lights. We stopped at a gathering point, and they were cooking reindeer sausages over an open fire pit. They were delicious. Suddenly the guy in the van on the computer shouted that the lights should appear shortly about twenty miles from our location. Everyone loaded up in the vans and we headed north. We arrived in about 20 minutes at the location and as we exited the vans, the lights were starting to show on the horizon with moving fingers of green. The sky had cleared and the view was awesome. I wound up shooting about 200 frames that evening and got some great photos of the Northern Lights that I have always dreamed of photographing. Check these out:

Memories:

I love it when memories from the past pop up that you weren’t expecting. My brother-inlaw was going through some papers or files and came across a magazine named Carolina Country, that I had photographed a cover for in April 1978. The photo was a picture of the Mattamuskeet Lake Lodge. This was originally built as a pumping station that was used to pump the lake dry so that it could be farmed. The operation went on for several years until a mechanical failure caused the lake to flood. It was not pumped down again and returned to its natural state. The building then became a lodge which housed hunters, fishermen and other guests. This is copy of the cover and a recent photograph of the same shot.

Botanical Photo Group Set

These sets of the Botanical Photos are framed and available for purchase. The ones shown below are a 5-pc set and a 6-pc set. The 5-pc set is (1) 8 ½ x 11 (2) 5x7s and (2) 4×6 and the 6-pc set includes an 11 x 17 in addition to the 5-pc set. They can be delivered as a print only set, framed set or a wrapped canvas set. Prices vary depending on the framing and the shipping and handling requirements. Call or email me about the price and delivery times.

In February, we are going on a cruise to Puerto Rico. This should be a good time to warm up from the winter weather we are experiencing here. I’m looking forward to to getting some tropical photographs.

In early Spring I’m planning a camper trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains to look at the waterfall loop with approximately 15 falls, all within reach from the highway. This loop is located southwest of Asheville, NC. I expect that this trip to take about a week or maybe a little longer. I tend to get to waterfalls and become mesmerized by their beauty and spend a little more time photographing than Donna’s one shot cell phone picture.

In the fall, the camper van will be carrying us to the west coast to Washington, Oregon and California. I can’t wait to photograph the coasts of Washington and Oregon, the Redwood forests, and Yosemite and Joshua Tree National Parks. It will be exciting to see the places where Ansel Adams made his spectacular photographs.

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

Be sure to check the Website (daleblakephotography.net or daleblakephotography.com) 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 I am going and what I am 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 my website is now daleblakephotography.com. We have recently regained ownership of our original website, daleblakephotography.com. Very soon you will be able to access our website with either the .com or the .net address.

Be sure to check one of them out.

My website is handled 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.

(Bonus Note: There is so much on the internet now about how to do photography. You can find subjects on everything from basic to advanced photography. Take advantage of the opportuniy here by learning all that you can about the technical parts of photography, especially the basics of photography.)

I welcome comments about this newsletter, my website and my Instagram page. Just reply to this email with your comments. I hope that everyone enjoys it, but, If you wish to no longer receive this newsletter or my emails, please email me back with unsubscribe in the subject line and I will remove you from the listing.

Until next month; Keep your camera ready, your hand steady and your eyes open for that next shot.

Until next time;

H. Dale Blake

Dale Blake Photography, LLC