Sad and heavy days. Being in nature helps regain some strength. Sometimes being alone and quiet is what is needed. Knowing we’re not alone but can support each other through these challenging times is ultimately what gets me through. #littleblueheron #photohour #birdphotography #artheals

My friends speak often about the darkness in the world. "Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift" - Mary Oliver The light is waiting to shine. It will shine. #ColourADay #PinkMon #Blossom #Flowerphotography #Photography

busy birds before sunrise at the Tampa Bay in St Pete

Before sunrise in St Pete #mondaymorning #goodmorning

Come visit us at the studios of the ArtsXchange tonight during St. Pete 2nd Saturday ArtWalk! I'd love to meet you. #TampaBay #Florida #artwalk #StPete #artist #birdphotography

A great blue heron flying over one of the Pinellas Refuges islands (part of the greater Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges). It's my great honor to be the first Featured Artist for the Friends of Tampa Bay NWR. #birdoftheday #heron #birdphotography #TampaBay #Florida #PhotoHour

Met this creep on the pier this morning 👀

Before Monday morning sunrise

Heute. ❄️

Our writers read a lot in 2025. Here are a few books that stood out. www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...

Together with my Sunday zoom yoga group, I just finished 108 sun salutations. Before we started, I wasn’t even sure if I could remember each move in order every time or physically manage. Now I did all of them, I feel empowered, calm, centered and ready for a good, dynamic year.

Best Movies of 2025 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/m...

Big THANKS to the buyers of my work in the Morean Holiday exhibit. And thank you to Amanda Cooper and Morean Arts Center for allowing me to put up new work in their place. Holiday Exhibit + Bird Exhibit end today at 3pm. #StPeteFL #StPetersburg

Ein schöner Winternachmittag mit der Familie in der Marsch. Tolles Nachweihnachts-Essen in der Aal-Kate in Neuendeich.

Good morning. The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #branchingout birds on branches, the alternative is #waders wading birds . Good luck. #birds #photography #EastCoastKin

Anniversary Morning (a tree for each decade and the next one growing already) Or: random Tuesday morning sunrise in Florida

Monday Morning Rising Sun Through The Fog - With Squirrel (Downtown St Pete, Florida)

(Before) Monday Morning Sunrise

This Sunday sunset is just the prelude to me coming back online with the Monday Morning sunrise from this morning…

The opening reception of Creative Pinellas Arts Annual is TONIGHT! It’s an honor to be part of the best group exhibit in the county IMHO. This year is extra special because the work I created is deeply personal. It’s called Papi’s Garten (Dad’s Garden). Photo shows an excerpt of the installation.

Thank you Michelle and Dan for featuring my photo and thoughts (I originally shared on FB) in the quarterly Historic Kenwood magazine - and for your caring words and sentiment.

There she goes again… 3rd time in a row makes it a tradition right? 3rd #mondaymorning #sunrise at the #StPeteFL waterfront. Good morning, everyone. Have a splendid week!

Before sunrise…

TWO art events with my work this Saturday. Of course, there is St. Pete 2nd Saturday Art Walk and my studio will be open (and I hope to see you), I also have work in the Photography Invitational at the Stirling Gallery in Dunedin. The Aspen tree photo is one of mine, none of the others are.

Parents! Aren't they the best? The way they nurture and guide us and put us first, before themselves even. 🕊️ what: #mockingbird 📍where: my garden, #HistoricKenwood, #Florida 🗓️ when: May 2025 #birdphotography #backyardoasis

Magnificent Frigate Bird Eye-to-Eye. So far my favorite photo from my outings with the Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges. I've been in awe with frigate birds since 1st spotting them flying high above Barbados in 2005 looking like Pterodactylus #birdphotography #wildlifephotography

BIG NEWS! I’m thrilled and honored to be the 1st Featured Wildlife Artist for Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges. See more photos and get more info in my NEW BLOG POST: luciwest.com/tampa-bay-wi... #wildlifephotographer #naturephotography #featuredartist #wildliferefuges #TampaBay

Good morning, Beautiful

The simple, imperfect beauty of wild blackberry flowers give us the opportunity for a moment of awe. And a moment of awe triggers happiness. I ignore the thought this might be a different plant since blackberry is usually white because overthinking keeps us from being happy. #naturephotography

This female common redstart / Gartenrotschwanz (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) I first saw with my dad during a Germany visit in spring when he was still alive. I took these two photos in my mom’s garden this summer. Ties that bind. 🐥 what: Common Redstart 📍where: Haselau, Germany 
 🗓️ when: August 2025

Often times, it's the little things. So excited to see a small Atala #Butterfly / Coontie Hairstreak / Eumaeus atala in my front yard. This is an #endangered species and requires the coontie as a host plant. I have two of those plants (not pictured here). I plant for butterfly caterpillars! Do you?

Thank you for all you have done, especially for independent film. RIP Robert Redford

It's happening again: #OpenStudio during #ArtWalk TODAY 5pm - 9pm. Come say hello, have a candy, buy a thing, tell me what's happening in the other studios and galleries I can't visit during ArtWalk anymore. The gallery off my hallway has a must-see USAid exhibit. #StPeteFL #Florida #artist

Community. A safe place to land. So important. Especially now. But also always. what: Magnificent Frigate #Birds where: Saint Joseph Sound, #Florida when: June #birdphotography #birdsofbluesky #naturephotographer

Morning Run View #StPeteFL #Florida #PinellasTrail #runner #gettingbacktoit

This is the email I sent to the Pinellas County commissioners today on behalf of continued funding for Creative Pinellas. For the #arts and the health of our community! We are currently losing many ways of self-expression and freedom in #Florida. We can't afford to lose anymore!

Endings and beginnings. Loss and hope. Every sunset. Every sunrise. Everything could change at any moment. Let’s celebrate what we “have” on this day Let’s be gentle and kind (including to ourselves) as we handle loss, disappointment, and broken dream Let’s hope for a great tomorrow

I couldn’t love this more! Sunshine City Mosaic in the making in Sunset Park #StPeteFL - by my girl Miss Crit (Laura Spencer) and her man George Ratkes and Alex Kaufman. #publicart

backyard cherry bandit (in Germany a few weeks ago) #birdnerd #birdphotography #naturephotography

Thank you so much!

Resilience! Grateful and excited: I received a Resilience #Artist Grant from the St Pete Warehouse Arts District. Took this photo in #Hamburg while urbex-ploring with @fraustehr.bsky.social + @jakomoro.bsky.social #urbex #artistlife #photographer

Good morning to the word, from St. Pete, #Florida. (Yes, I’m #jetlagged, been up since 4am and just walked 45 minutes to see the sun rise over Tampa Bay) #StPeteFL #photography #sunrise

Last night’s St Pete ArtWalk brought much laughter and joy. Very happy to be back with my artist family and excited to create in my studio among my people again.

So it hasn’t been exactly a flood of nature images… but waves… and I aim to continue as manifested on July 20 “without measure, expectation, or apology.” Here’s a Kohlweissling (cabbage white butterfly) on the Schmetterlingsflieder (butterfly bush) I can see from “my room” in my mom’s house.

Popping Poppy

just behind the darkness just below the horizon

A sunrise shot from this morning

Especially rough day slimming down my dad’s art and belongings. I actually asked for a sign, for something… Shortly after, I noticed how the rubber bands from a roll of photos had fallen…

The sound of German summer evenings: Every night, the Amsel (Eurasian Blackbird) sings its delightful melodies from the tallest tree or rooftop until the last ray of sunshine is gone. #birds #happierplace

There's much to miss if we don't look. Deer among a patch of wildflowers in the middle of a wheat field behind my parents' house. Spotted and being spotted during yesterday's evening walk.