I had gone to the state of Goa back in February of this year. This was mainly for work as I was involved in creating behind the scenes content for the production company’s social media channels on Facebook and Instagram. The prime location was however in the Vagator area and this is where all the cast and crew were staying. After filming had commenced, I had decided to stay an additional 5 days before returning back to Dehradun. I had planned out which places I would visiting in the next 5 days so how of these 5 days, 4 days were spent in Vagator itself and on my last day, I had decided to go to Dudhsagar waterfalls and Panjim. Even in the month of February, the afternoons were quite hot and humid but by evening, the weather would become pleasant.
Since I was staying at Bethany’s Inn, I had decided to mostly explore the Vagator area. Vagator has some scenic beaches. There is Vagator beach and Ozran beach, both in walking distance from the hotel. There was also the Chapora fort. Chapora fort was made popular by an Indian film called “Dil Chahta Hai” and from the top of the fort, it gives great views of Vagator beach.
Regarding Bethany’s Inn, the rooms are reasonably priced and comfortable. The owner is very helpful in suggesting which locations to visit and which locations to avoid. However meals are not provided at the guesthouse but there are a number places in walking distance which provide great food and here in Goa, beer and alcohol is quite cheap compared to other states. There is the Mango tree which has a good selection of food and desserts but slightly over priced and also there was Vagator bar which had a good range of seafood available and was modestly priced. Another place was Fusion Vagator which I had visited a couple of times with a few friends. This was located near Ozran beach and here the food was well cooked. And it was at this place, I had the best pizza ever.
With my new camera, the Canon EOS R, this trip gave me the opportunity to take alot of good landscape photographs. I had taken a number of long exposures at various locations on the beach, some amazing sunset photos, bird photos and so on.
A flock of Greater Sand Plovers on a rocky part of Vagator beach.
When walking up to Vagator hill point, I came across a small pack of feral dogs. Here I able to get a photo of this one as it lay down and looked at me with curiosity. As I tried to get closer, it ran off.
This seems to be a Pipit taken at Vagator hill point.
Here are some landscape photos which show the beauty of the beaches of Goa.
This was taken from Vagator hill point with views of Vagator beach but with the amount of smog in the air, the resulting view does not look that great.
I got some amazing silhouettes during sunset at Vagator beach. One of a pre-wedding shoot taking place around this time in a rocky area of the beach and the other of the crew adjusting the large reflector which was used during the music video shoot.
I also took a number of long exposures which required the camera to be mounted on a tripod due to the long shutter speed. Here I had used my 10 stop ND filter and got some good or decent images. The reason I am saying that the images were good but not great is because the lack of clouds. The sky could be described as smoggy. With visible clouds, this would have added more depth and mood to the image. The best time to get some moody seascapes I feel would have been during the monsoon months when one can see dark clouds.
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