diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 688407f464..c878960eee 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## [6.1.1] - 2025-05-20
+
+### Fixed
+- Prevent swallowing of `ValueError` when creating a figure with subplots [[#3888](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.py/pull/3888)]
+- Fix issue causing `fig.write_image()` to not generate an image [[#5193](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.py/pull/5193)]
+
 ## [6.1.0] - 2025-05-15
 
 ### Updated
diff --git a/plotly/basedatatypes.py b/plotly/basedatatypes.py
index 12b14c1ca8..443c34e826 100644
--- a/plotly/basedatatypes.py
+++ b/plotly/basedatatypes.py
@@ -3908,7 +3908,7 @@ def write_image(self, *args, **kwargs):
                 warnings.warn(
                     ENGINE_PARAM_DEPRECATION_MSG, DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2
                 )
-            return pio.write_image(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        return pio.write_image(self, *args, **kwargs)
 
     # Static helpers
     # --------------
diff --git a/plotly/express/_core.py b/plotly/express/_core.py
index 3e0675dcbb..efee6985e3 100644
--- a/plotly/express/_core.py
+++ b/plotly/express/_core.py
@@ -2890,6 +2890,7 @@ def _spacing_error_translator(e, direction, facet_arg):
     except ValueError as e:
         _spacing_error_translator(e, "Horizontal", "facet_col_spacing")
         _spacing_error_translator(e, "Vertical", "facet_row_spacing")
+        raise
 
     # Remove explicit font size of row/col titles so template can take over
     for annot in fig.layout.annotations:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6ffbbbee86..8d8e813caa 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ classifiers = [
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
 license = {file="LICENSE.txt"}
-version = "6.1.0"
+version = "6.1.1"
 dependencies = [
     "narwhals>=1.15.1",
     "packaging"
diff --git a/tests/test_optional/test_kaleido/test_kaleido.py b/tests/test_optional/test_kaleido/test_kaleido.py
index 9a9d414dc9..84b0777230 100644
--- a/tests/test_optional/test_kaleido/test_kaleido.py
+++ b/tests/test_optional/test_kaleido/test_kaleido.py
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
+import base64
+from contextlib import redirect_stdout
 from io import BytesIO, StringIO
 from pathlib import Path
 import tempfile
-from contextlib import redirect_stdout
-import base64
+from unittest.mock import patch
 
 from pdfrw import PdfReader
 from PIL import Image
+import plotly.graph_objects as go
 import plotly.io as pio
 from plotly.io.kaleido import kaleido_available, kaleido_major
 import pytest
 
+
 fig = {"data": [], "layout": {"title": {"text": "figure title"}}}
 
 
@@ -160,3 +163,43 @@ def test_defaults():
     finally:
         pio.defaults.default_format = "png"
         assert pio.defaults.default_format == "png"
+
+
+def test_fig_write_image():
+    """Test that fig.write_image() calls the correct underlying Kaleido function."""
+
+    test_fig = go.Figure(fig)
+    test_image_bytes = b"mock image data"
+
+    if kaleido_major() > 0:
+        patch_funcname = "plotly.io._kaleido.kaleido.calc_fig_sync"
+    else:
+        patch_funcname = "plotly.io._kaleido.scope.transform"
+
+    with patch(patch_funcname, return_value=test_image_bytes) as mock_calc_fig:
+        test_fig.write_image("test_path.png")
+
+        # Verify patched function was called once with fig dict as first argument
+        mock_calc_fig.assert_called_once()
+        args, _ = mock_calc_fig.call_args
+        assert args[0] == test_fig.to_dict()
+
+
+def test_fig_to_image():
+    """Test that fig.to_image() calls the correct underlying Kaleido function."""
+
+    test_fig = go.Figure(fig)
+    test_image_bytes = b"mock image data"
+
+    if kaleido_major() > 0:
+        patch_funcname = "plotly.io._kaleido.kaleido.calc_fig_sync"
+    else:
+        patch_funcname = "plotly.io._kaleido.scope.transform"
+
+    with patch(patch_funcname, return_value=test_image_bytes) as mock_calc_fig:
+        test_fig.to_image()
+
+        # Verify patched function was called once with fig dict as first argument
+        mock_calc_fig.assert_called_once()
+        args, _ = mock_calc_fig.call_args
+        assert args[0] == test_fig.to_dict()