21 Jul 2015  |   09:23pm IST

A view from the Goan skies

Cajetan Barretto, though currently in Kuwait, is a true blue Goan who wants to show the world that Goa is much more than what meets the eye. Café catches up with the man behind the viral video ‘Eye in the sky’, which will be officially launched on July 24, 2015 in Panjim

What started out as Cajetan Barretto’s simple wish of capturing his holiday in Goa in an aerial video, resulted in the stunning video that is already being shared onlin by friends and family and will also be officially released on July 24, 2015 in Panjim. Cajetan, an IT professional from Mobor, has been working and living in Kuwait since 1992. His love for photography started when he purchased a Nikon D70, his first DSLR, in 2004, and grew from there.

“Being a technical guy, I love to experiment with my gear to see how far I can push it to achieve interesting results. When it comes to aerial photography, I have always been fascinated with the birds-eye view. Whenever I travel, I take every opportunity to climb the tallest building, take a helicopter ride, or shoot from the window of the airplane. The purchase of a drone (DJI Phantom 2) changed everything as far as aerial photography is concerned,” says this photography enthusiast.

His interaction with Varun Carvalho, a dentist by profession and musician by passion, led him to the song ‘Amchem Goa’ which gave him the idea of creating a video with aerial shots. “When I heard the song, the opening verse ‘Let’s cross the Mandovi, Let’s Cross the Zuari, Let’s cross every river and stream, Let’s run to Tiswadi, Let’s run to Sattari...,’ gave me the idea for the video; to capture as much of our Goa as possible, before it changes. It is important to keep a document of what Goa is now, for the future generations to appreciate,” expresses Cajetan.

He further adds, “I asked Varun if we can collaborate together to create a video documentary of Goa with his music and my videos. Once he gave me the green signal, I took a leave of absence from work, and family, and for one whole week, did exactly what Varun said in his song – ran from one end of Goa to the other, shooting as much as I could. The result is this video.”

Cajetan used his DJI Phantom 2 to capture the true essence of the green Goa. The three minutes and 32 seconds video documents places like Panjim, Margao, Mapusa, Navelim, Terekhol and Palolem and is available on YouTube.

Cajetan, who is the he Admin of Goa Speaks, a Facebook group that attempts to keep Goans informed of events and activities happening in Goa, is also planning on documenting lesser known regions of Goa. “I have upgraded my drone to the latest model last month with a Phantom 3 professional, capable of shooting 4K video and high-quality stills. I am looking forward to documenting Goa with the new device as soon as I get an opportunity to travel to Goa. I will probably work with Cecil Pinto to pull it off as two drones will make it much easier,” says Cajetan.

Varun adds, “The video is to show the beauty of Goa which is not yet lost and to celebrate what is still left. Cajetan had a lot of footage which could not be used in the video. We plan to work on a longer documentary on Goa,” concludes Varun.