For many years it’s been a tradition for me to go across the ocean to Denmark’s capital Copenhagen at the tail end of April to photograph at the Sakura (or Cherry Tree in Japanese) Festival. It’s usually quite the colorful experience with lots of people in kimonos, martial arts outfits (for the displays) or various anime and manga outfits. I’ve covered it with my digital gear many times…so this time I figured I’d have a go at it with my 1970s Canon TLb and Fomapan 400 film. It is also the one camera in my gear bag that I am not very careful with…so if the projected downpour would have a disastrous go at it…well…I have other cameras I can use.
Last year when I shot at the festival the park was absolutely packed with people celebrating the arrival of spring underneath the cherry trees with various degrees of complex picnics. Not so this year with the rain dribbling down from the skies…but to be honest I hadn’t expected much of a turnout given that it had rained A LOT through the night and morning, so I was glad to see SOME people there at all.
The traditional Taiko drums that start off the festival on the main stage
I was there with two other photographers from my photo club’s street photography group and we shot at the festival for just over an hour before it was time for lunch and we headed to a nearby restaurant for some refreshments. Once we were fully restored and got back out again the rain had stopped, but we all felt we’d done enough shooting at the festival and headed through the streets of Copenhagen to the Metro and train back to Sweden. It was a much shorter stay than I usually do at the festival, but I did manage to shoot a full roll (and I didn’t kill my camera in the process), so it’s all good!
My fellow photo club member Kenneth with the Marble Church in the background
Below are a few more of my images from the festival. In hindsight I should have been a bit more generous with light towards my camera. The shots ended up pretty dark.
