Beginnings never end

When did I start being a photographer?

Was it when my parents gave me that Nikon EM? When I took a darkroom class in high school? Did investing a thousand dollars, a queenly sum for me then and now, in a digital SLR body mean I was getting serious about it? Did my identity shift sufficiently when I began regularly spending 15+ hours a week studying photo books and Youtube tutorials? When I took the leap from natural light to strobes and LEDs, maybe? When I built this site?

The beginnings never end; the becoming never stops. It’s a tired, narcissistic topic for a first blog post; it should probably be accompanied by a self-portrait of my navel or something. But hey, it’s my blog, in the immortal words of newbie bloggers world round.

How about I explain the name for this site? “Quinquatria” is the name of an ancient Roman festival, sacred to Minerva, goddess of inspiration and the arts (among other things), which happens to fall across my birthday in March. It’s also a dusty-enough word that it wasn’t taken anywhere, lending it a nice mix of personal meaning and convenience. Usability didn’t cross the mind of my marketing team of one (me), so my customer support team of one (me) gets to spell it to people a lot. That kind of job security is hard to come by in 2026.

March, spring, and UW cherry blossoms are right around the corner, so I’ll be making that yearly pilgrimage with a camera or two. Last year I took a creaky medium-format bellows camera, which was an exercise in discovering just how much light leak it takes to fully obscure a photograph. March is also when they’ll be announcing the winners in King County Metro’s Show Us Your World contest, AND when the Link across the Lake goes live, knock on wood.

Blog image: 2025 photo taken of the cherry blossoms at UW with my Nikon EM, because you always bring a backup…