Photography is a visual art where the perspective of the
photographer holds great importance. Offering us a rather uncommon angle of the
churches and temples of Goa – the aerial view – is the father-son duo of Cecil
and Desmond Pinto.
A renowned writer, Cecil Pinto took an interest in aerial
photography a few months back after meeting his Kuwait-based friend, Cajetan
Barretto, on one of his visits to Goa. Cajetan had brought along with him his
quadcopter and asked Cecil to accompany him on some drone photography missions.
The results amazed Cecil, prompting him to convince Cajetan to sell him the
quadcopter and also teach him how to use it.
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Now, accompanied by his 15-year-old son Desmond, Cecil plans
to showcase Goa’s natural, manmade and live heritage from a bird’s eye
perspective. “I have started off with an ambitious goal of shooting every
church in Goa. In passing, I shoot anything interesting like temples,
festivals, city landscapes, rivers, etc,” says Cecil, who has shot more than
fifty churches so far. “We were going at quite a good pace but then Desmond’s
school restarted and the monsoons came in so now the pace has slowed down
considerably. In fact, the photos I am putting up now were shot in April and
May,” he adds, about the photographs uploaded on Facebook and Twitter.
Father and son are photography enthusiasts and do a lot of
shooting together. They even went about shooting every cross (roadside as well
as in-wall) in Aldona. “Desmond is also very good at video shooting and editing
and has been making hilarious amateur home productions for many years now.
While the aerial photography is great fun, the shared experience is priceless
as it gives us the opportunity to see places we would probably have never
encountered otherwise. Sometimes my wife Beatrice and younger son Fabian also
accompany us and it becomes a family outing and a learning experience. Some of
my friends call us Al’drone’kars,” says Cecil with a smile.
The Pinto duo uses the DJI Phantom Vision 2 Plus. It has an
inbuilt camera with an advanced 3 axis gimbal which keeps the camera rock
steady. “I don’t know about Goa specifically, but Amazon India sells it for
about Rs 1,25,000. I hope other photographers in Goa also invest in drones and
shoot the amazing aerial landscapes that Goa provides,” says Cecil. “The same
weather conditions that get you good photographs using a conventional camera
are required. Rain, of course, is a total no no, as this particular quadcopter
is not designed for rain. But unlike a conventional photographer, I am not
restricted by space. If the lighting is not good at a particular point, I just
fly off to another point in the sky. As long as there are no trees, poles or
wires blocking the path or view, the sky, quite literally, is the limit. I try
and make a short flyover video of every church I shoot but I concentrate on
good still photos.”
Social media has surely helped the photographs reach the
global audience. Cecil is waiting to finish covering every church in Goa to see
what works best. “Right now we are revelling in the fact that so many people,
especially Goans, all over the world are enjoying our photos and videos and are
seeing their familiar churches from a different perspective. Every time I put
up a fresh series of pictures on Facebook, I immediately get hundreds of Likes,
Shares and Comments. It makes all our efforts worthwhile,” he states.
Desmond will be answering his SSC this year. Though he
hasn’t yet decided on a career, Cecil believes that he will eventually pursue
filmmaking in some way or the other. “He definitely has the aptitude and the
ability,” concludes the proud father.
