photos not being reliably mailed from photos app

I have an ipad air (purchased a little over a year ago, so it’s out of tech support), and one problem I’ve had with it is that when I try to email a photo from within the photos application, using the little “mail” icon, it makes a sound like it’s being sent (swooshing noise), but it never comes through on the other end, either with my live (Microsoft) email, or with my g mail email. I used to get an occasional one that would make it, but lately none of them do. The entire message goes missing, not just the attachment. I’ve been sure to put a subject in, and have even tried writing something in the e-mail, in case it’s being bounced by the email server, but this doesn’t make any difference. It doesn’t show up in the spam bucket or anything like that. It just disappears into the aether.