Photographer shares the seashore from Longboat Key

For Sheila Loccisano, picking a favorite photo is like picking her favorite child.

The mother of eight can’t do it.

And it makes sense.

Loccisano wakes up at 5 a.m. every day and begins tapping her phone camera as soon as her toes hit the sand. By the end of the day, she accumulates about 200 photographs.

Loccisano, 50, isn’t merely hoarding the photos. She’s building a brand. Loccisano is the face behind @followmetolongboatkey, an Instagram account with more than 9,000 followers.

“I try to capture things that other people just walk by,” Loccisano said. “I try to notice the small things that otherwise go unnoticed.”

Loccisano walks the beach several times a day. She walks at sunrise, in the afternoon and evening and then at sunset.

“When you see the blue water in the afternoon, it’s like, ‘How can it get any better than that?’” she said. “When you see the beautiful sunrise it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s the start of a great day.’ And you wait all day for sunset.”

Loccisano walks local beaches from the tip of Anna Maria Island down to Siesta Key.

“It’s just beautiful. There’s not many people on Longboat Key, so you can get some really awesome pictures,” she said. “Lido is beautiful, Anna Maria is beautiful. They’re all beautiful, but they all have their unique quality that are special to them.”

Loccisano started her Instagram account after encouragement from one of her daughters. 

For the past 18 months, Loccisano has been posting about three to four pictures a day. She splits her time between Longboat Key and Atlanta, but the pictures never stop. Because she takes so many photos, Loccisano is able to post every day while she’s in Atlanta.

“It appears that I’m here every day on the beach 365 days a year, but I’m not,” she said.

Although starfish and sand dollars are coveted beach finds, they aren’t always abundant. Loccisano always carries a shell or sand dollar in her pocket just in case nothing turns up on one of her walks.

“I look, and then I might have a sand dollar in my pocket to add another dimension that makes the picture look better, but I try to use whatever is popular that day,” she said.

However, if her caption says “I found the biggest sand dollar today,” or something of the like, she found it that day.

“I’m not telling stories,” she said.

Loccisano says, it’s important to note that any starfish, seahorses, ghost crabs and other live marine life in her photos are left on the beach in their natural habitat.

Loccisano hopes to continue growing her account — she gains about 1,000 followers every five to six weeks — and possibly partner with Longboat restaurants and resorts.

Loccisano’s followers often ask her for restaurant recommendations. Among those she gives hat tips to are Mar Vista, The Lazy Lobster and Dry Dock. And though she hasn’t recommended resorts yet, she hopes to partner with some that might give her followers discounts when they book and mention her account.

But for now, Loccisano continues to wake up at 5 every morning — without an  alarm — and heads to the beach.

She has to continue her mission.

“If somebody is in Minnesota and wants to be at the beach, I want to bring them the beach,” she said.