Mahabalipuram Dance Festival 2011

Mahabalipuram also known as Mamallapuram  is all set for this years dance festival. The dates for Mahabalipuram Dance Festival 2011 is from 25th December 2010 to 25th January 2011. All leading dancers come and perform here during this festival. One can find dancers performing variety of dance like Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak and Kathakali etc. It will be held at the back drop of Arjuna's penance.

POV: More Branding For Free

I think I knew very early on in life that one of the most critical and fundamental factors in any business, whether online or not, was branding. As I entered the online world for my photography business, I realized that online personal branding was key to generate a distinctive internet personality/presence, and that's how I snagged The Travel Photographer label...for my blog, a backup blog, website(s), social media such as Twitter, Facebook and everything in between including an email address, business cards, and even items of my own clothing.

If I had a penny for each time I hear other travel photographers how clever I was in snagging The Travel Photographer label/brand before they did, it'd pay for a new Canon 5D Mark II...I exaggerate of course, but I heard that said a lot.

I also knew that my name was not the easiest to pronounce (at least for Americans...it's no problem with other nationalities), so an alias was the smart thing to do. It always gives me a kick when I'm in a photography function and I'm introduced as "Tewfic...y'know, The Travel Photographer".

All right, I rambled enough about personal branding. Through one of my Twitter followers, I learned of About.me which is a free website (technically still in beta) that allows anyone to build a an attractive personal profile that points users to one's content from around the web.

Naturally, I snagged The Travel Photographer and now have my very own personal profile. Will it be useful? I don't know yet but at the very least I appropriated and protected my brand by doing so.

If you have a personal brand, you may want to do the same.

Next Week On The Travel Photographer

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, January 10? Here's what:

1. The work of an emerging photojournalist featuring Muslim Latinos in the United States.
2. A very well done educational resource website for photographers. Whether advanced or not, you'll find this resource very useful.
3. The work of an interesting photographer/photojournalist on Holi.
4. An inside view as to how a young photographer sets portraits of members of tribes in Ethiopia.

There'll also be some "shooting from the hip" posts...I'll also be touring the incomparable (and gigantic) B&H on an exclusive visit, and getting ready for my end of month photo~expedition in Gujarat.