Donny and Caitlin Rambacher, Mavin Pflaum, Lee O’Connor and Stephanie Rogers, who placed in the Sakura Festival Photography Contest in 2022 and 2023, share their experiences.
Everyday Akron partnered with Julie Cajigas, Professor of Practice, The School of Communication at The University of Akron, to bring you this guest blog post by students in the PR Writing course. Enjoy!
By Amanda Bruno and Amanda Carey
The Rambachers, joyful parents of Maeve, their 10-month-old daughter, had no idea that their quest to capture her photo among spring cherry blossoms would be a winning one.
Wearing a denim bucket hat and flower-patterned sunglasses, Maeve was prepared for her close-up. For Caitlin and Donny Rambacher, the brief expedition required careful planning of bloom timings, ideal lighting, and precious between-nap intervals.
They took turns carrying Maeve down the Towpath in downtown Akron, quickly capturing her inquisitive look and contagious laughter.
When they heard about the Downtown Akron Partnership Sakura Photo Contest, they decided to enter a photo of Maeve. To their surprise, they won third prize in 2022’s contest.
This year’s Sakura Festival celebrates Japanese culture and the coming of spring along the Towpath’s 472 cherry trees on Saturday, April 6 from 3 to 9 p.m.
As part of the festival, a photo contest invites photographers, both casual and professional, to share their images of the cherry blossoms on Instagram. Photographers can visit the Towpath Trail in downtown Akron during the Sakura Festival, or between now and April 15 at 11:59 p.m., when the contest ends.
A blossom photo could win recognition and one of several prizes including $100 in gift certificates to downtown businesses.
The photo contest features 450+ cherry blossom trees that were planted in 2011 as a collaboration between the city of Akron and the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio (JANO).
In 2020, when the mature trees were producing blossoms, the Downtown Akron Partnership built the Akron Sakura Festival around the blooms.
The Rambachers have actually been attending the Akron Sakura Festival since 2020. For them, it’s been fun to see how the festival has grown over the years.
“Seeing the blooms started as a pandemic activity for us, and it’s been going strong for three years now,” Donny Rambacher, said. “Such a fun tradition.”
The Rambacher family encourages Akronites and visitors to go and check out the blossoms. Given the short-term lifespan of the blossoms, unless someone visits the Towpath regularly, they may not even know that Akron has these trees.
“I have learned the origin of the trees, but it still blows my mind every year that we have them and in such an idyllic spot. A truly fun Akron fact,” Rambacher said.
Last year’s third place winner didn’t plan the winning shot at all.
“I ride a bike and I am always looking for interesting places or events to route a ride,” Marvin Pflaum said. “The cherry blossoms fit the bill.”
Pflaum was out with a group he typically rides with on the Towpath Trail enjoying the blossoms when he saw the perfect shot.
“When I saw the couple with the dog, I separated from the group to stop and take the photo,” he said.
He decided to enter the Sakura Festival photo competition, and much to his surprise he was awarded the third-place prize.
“It’s a nice photo and captures a moment of the couple with their dog,” Pflaum said. “The cherry blossoms added the color and perhaps a sense of enjoyment of what is always a fleeting moment.”
Pflaum also wants potential entrants to know that owning a camera isn’t a pre-requisite for winning. His winning photo was taken on the fly, without any special equipment.
“I was shooting with my phone [that day],” he said, “but for something more serious, I would use my camera, tripod, and remote shutter controls.”
Though they used a Nikon D7500, the Rambachers aren’t professional photographers either.
It should be known, though, that Donny Rambacher is a graphic designer, with lots of experience creating compelling visuals.
The hardest part of grabbing the photo for them was more about the subject.
“It was definitely a team effort between my wife and I. Maeve was only ten months old, so one of us would get her to smile, the other would snap some photos,” he said.
The photographer who won second place in 2023’s Downtown Akron Sakura Festival can usually be found shooting something very different than cherry blossoms.
The usual subject of their photos is anime cosplay. For Lee O’Connor, cosplay is strongly tied to their identity and their love of photography.
“Growing up queer and autistic, you have to wear a lot of ‘masks’ in order to get through life safely. Basically, there’s a lot of acting involved. I always had to pretend to be someone I was not,” they said.
After finding cosplayers on YouTube, O’Connor married their artistic skills and photography background to start capturing images.
For O’Connor, photography was an early love.
“When I was a kid, I got a point-and-shoot film camera for Christmas,” they said. “I thought taking pictures was fun and continued doing it any time I had a roll of film.”
At GlenOak High School, O’Connor took a photography class that allowed them to expand on their skills. “I wanted to learn how to… do more than just click a button,” they said.
Lee O’Connor’s inspiration came from looking at photos from festivals worldwide. “I always look at photos from Sakura Festivals in Japan and other places… and often see the type of umbrella I used being held by people,” they said.
Their winning photograph captured a Wagasa, a traditional Japanese umbrella, being illuminated in a cherry blossom tree.
Unlike O’Connor, the 2023 first-place winner, Stephanie Rogers has a photography business, Flashbacks Photography.
Rogers wanted her business name to stand out from others and make people have flashbacks to a memory. “It gives you an instantaneous happy moment in remembering that time,” she said.
Her winning photograph showed a blooming cherry blossom with the heart of Downtown Akron in the background. She wanted to show Akron’s beauty.
Rogers works for an orthodontist as a medical coordinator and photography is just a side hustle. Photography is not her main career.
She was given her first camera from her husband on Christmas. “I had continued to talk about it, and he said, ‘I’m going to support your dreams and the things that you want to do’… and that is what started it,” she said.
According to Rogers, winning first place in the photo contest has given her more credibility in her photography business.
All the photographers enjoyed the festival, and most plan to attend again this year.
Lee O’Connor plans to attend again but has also been interested in Sakura for a long time.
“I always wished there were cherry blossoms closer to me so that I could see them in person and photograph them,” they said, “but they were always too far away to travel to. I never expected a bunch to be planned just a 30-minute drive away.”
“Something about this festival seemed to bring out many different types of people, who seemed to feel safe to be themselves and enjoy their time there,” O’Connor said.
Like O’Connor, Rogers appreciates seeing people express themselves by dressing up and becoming part of the festival.
“That would be the closest I have come to learning Japanese Culture… In Akron, even though we are diverse, there is not a lot of education… it was a really nice learning experience,” Rogers said.
To enter the 2024 Sakura Festival Photo Contest, post your shot to Instagram and tag the Downtown Akron Partnership Instagram Account. Entries can be submitted from now through April 15 at 11:59 p.m.
Each of the photographers had some words of advice:
“If you are considering entering the photo contest, then just enter,” Lee O’Connor said.
“Find your point of view and capture it,” Stephanie Rogers said.
“Get out there!” Donny Rambacher says. “You never know when the clouds, sun, and blooms will align perfectly. Your photo is waiting, go take it! If nothing else, it’s a great time to spend outdoors and get in touch with the city and with nature.”
Pflaum’s advice gets a little more technical.
“Take a lot of photos during different times of the day. The cherry blossoms span quite a distance, so being able to move from one end to the other [of the Towpath] easily would be helpful,” said Marvin Pflaum. “Also, if you are interested in shooting just the blossoms, have the proper lenses.”
For more information on the photography contest, visit the Downtown Akron Partnership website.
The 2024 Sakura Festival will take place on Saturday, April 6 from 3 to 9 p.m. along the Towpath Trail. To learn more, visit www.downtownakron.com.
Pro Tips for Sakura Success from Dale Dong, UA Faculty Member
Are you thinking of heading out to shoot the blossoms? We’ve got you covered with photo tips from University of Akron Assistant Lecturer Dale Dong. Dong teaches photography courses in the Myers School of Art.
Tip 1: Leverage The Golden Hour
Whether dawn or dusk, that hour when the sun is low in the sky is going to provide some of the best opportunities to capture gorgeous light on the blossoms.
Tip 2: Take Your Eye Off the Sky
According to Dong, the more composition the better. “Pay close attention to using rule of thirds don’t use too much sky,” Dong said. “Avoid putting a group in the middle.”
Tip 3: Go in For the Close Up
“It’s nice to get a close up shot as an alternative,” Dong said. Variety is the spice of life, so don’t make all your photos medium landscape shots.
Tip 4: Increase Your Odds
There are two ways to increase your odds in Dong’s advice. First, take lots of photos. Then, select the best of the photos to present. The second way to increase your odds is to edit your images. Photos can be adjusted using your smart phone photo program, or something more sophisticated. Try to get the exposure, contrast, color balance and warmth to the ideal levels. If the photo is dark, try adjusting the shadows and brightness.
No matter what, go out and have fun. And enjoy the blossoms while they last!
Again, special thanks to The University of Akron students Amanda Bruno and Amanda Carey for providing this article on Downtown Akron Partnership and their Sakura Festival.
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