SUMMERTIME BLUES!

There's been a resurgence in the interest in my Refraction Series of photos - so here's some old and some new pics.   These photos are available in 8 X 10, 11 X 14, 16 X 20, 20 X 24 and poster size.  

Great photos for beach houses, bathrooms, patios, spas or even offices.

Have a great week!

JO COHN





INTRODUCING FABULOUS NEW PHOTOGRAPHY

I've been keeping most of this work under wraps for a while.   Following my refraction and butterfly series, I took a lot of my work inside under indoor lights and using glass and water, did new reflection and refraction work with flowers.      Using the best quality flowers, the images are bold and lovely.

Myterratree's presence at the Imperial Farmers Market in Sugar Land, TX is starting to pack a real punch.   Original water refraction work is still available framed and unframed in 11 X 14's and 8 X 10's.  Butterflies are fluttering all over the booth.   Butterfly collages are available as prints or framed.   New to the butterfly range are my round, yellow frames - ideal for little girl's rooms or really great in sets for that empty space in your guestroom or cloakroom.    For smaller gifts, I have developed a small range of stationery, using my photos.     There are two different butterfly notecard packs and for those totally in love with my water refraction photos, I have journals with refraction covers.

From this weekend, a whole new range of photography will be available for sale in ivory colored 8 X 10 mattes or 11 X 14 mattes.    I have released a number of photo's not seen before.   Trees, sea-scapes, gypy musicians, flowers, one real nasty alligator and many, many more.  

Remember to visit Myterratree between 9.00am and 1.00pm tomorrow to check out new inventory.

Seeyasoon

JO COHN

FACEBOOK IS GOING DOWNHILL .... FAST

By nature I've always been someone to give the benefit of the doubt and this is what I've done with Facebook for three to four years.   Although some people use it as a forum for their every move and thought(bless their hearts), I think it has a place and is a fabulous meeting place for friends and acquaintances.

Lately I've noticed something is changing and doing so at a rapid pace.    I'd like to know why, despite having all my settings in place, that my wall is smothered with photos and messages from people I have never heard of.    How did that happen?   And ......... more to the point, are my postings appearing on the wall of total strangers as well?    The fact that it is happening is evidence that supporters of Facebook are placing themselves in a vulnerable position.    Or, more to the point, Facebook is placing it's supporters in a vulnerable position.   I thought at one time that I could limit my exposure in Facebook to those people who, by mutual agreement, wanted to be my Facebook friends.   Well, it seems those days are over and now every single posting is no longer exclusive.   Not good, not good at all.

Today the financial news is smothered with Facebook's  public offering for a allegedly staggering $100 billion.   http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11703181-poll-shows-most-users-distrust-facebook?lite.      I would say that it should be a cold day in hell before they get that right.    Investors have to look at short, medium and long term return on their money and by all accounts, Facebook's future growth could be more than a bit iffy if they are growing at the expense of the integrity of their product and the security of their supporters.

So I probably sound like I got out of bed on the wrong side today - but here's the thing that really has made my snarky.   Up in the top right hand corner of my home page is a little gold tab that says
"1 COUPON".   Everytime my cursor goes near this tab, a drop down window pops up announcing Savings Slider.   It seems that this tab is here to announce to me - without my asking - what coupons I can make use of today.   Lord have mercy!   This drop down has a settings option which allows you to select to not see it for 1hr, 4hrs, 24hrs or forever.   No guessing which one I selected - and guess what, it won't go away.  

So, not only do I have a bunch of people I don't know crashing my Facebook page, I now have to battle some coupon promotion drop down and I DON'T DO COUPONS!    

So what to do, what to do.    I don't have the time, energy or interest to attempt to contact Facebook.    Taking a cold, hard look  at this situation, I do use Facebook to promote my photography.   If there are a bunch of people on my wall whom I don't know, at least the message is reaching them - not an entirely bad thing.    In the interim, though, there's these other things going on - so it's a tradeoff.   I'll have to think about this...........  

Sneekpeek

Sneekpeek.   One of the many images being selected for the next photographic book.   This third book will be a celebration of the colors which surround us in nature.     Watch this space as I start working with my publisher.   VERY exciting!

Fabulous orchid photography available in time for Mother's Day.    (Available in prints or framed).   Visit MyTerraTree at the Imperial Farmer's Market, Sugarland, TX tomorrow 9am to 1pm to see the full range of orchids, butterflies and refraction photography.    In addition, my book "Illuminating Texas" is once again available for purchase.  

See you there!

One of the things I have most enjoyed since moving to the United States is the 'relative' respect and regard for law and order.   I feel that generally there is accountability for wrong doings - particularly obvious when you come from South Africa, where lawlessness was the order of the day for a long, long time.  

So, forgive me for this rant, but I get pissed off when authorities overstep their boundaries and display a remarkable lack of good judgement.  

Here's what happened.    After a lingering illness my mother passed away in November last year.   For the last twenty years of her life she had always wanted to have all her children together at one time.   There are five of us.   Two live in Australia, one has lived in Iran, England and Jordan, one has lived in Germany, Brazil and is now living in China and of course, me in the United States.  

As families go we have never really been THAT far apart.   We've made whatever time we can for each other but that was never quite enough for my mother.   Anyway, we all travelled from different parts of the world for the funeral and for the first time (probably ever) we spent a whole week together remembering the great times we had as kids and celebrating our mother for the fine job she did with us all.    The day after a lovely funeral (if they can ever be lovely), we got together and for the first time had a portrait taken by a photographer.   The photo above is a scanned proof.   The photo is also a celebration of the woman who raised us and of each other.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.   My brother living in South Africa mailed to me a CD of all the photos taken that day.   When I received the envelope today, it has been opened and sealed closed and the CD had been removed by customs in the USA.   It definitely would not have been in South Africa because the whole envelope would not have arrived!

So I have to ask what motivates a customs official to simply remove a CD which was clearly not an audio CD from an inbound package.   One look at the photos would reveal some pretty special photos.   If they had returned the CD to the package I probably would  have been OK with it - but they didn't.  

Of course the guilty party would never get to read this blog - but you just never, ever know!   Maybe one of my followers with a large readership will take it up.     So, to this miserable SOB I say that I really hope you rot in hell.    You don't know the history or the purpose of those photos.    What I do know is that there's someone up there watching and you don't want to piss her off because you really will rot in hell!      

THANK YOU EVERYBODY

One of the most gratifying things I experience whilst doing what I do is the support and help from my friends and family.   The Susan G Komen Fair was a great success for me - not only from a sales viewpoint but also because the people around me WANT me to succeed.     There's always a degree of vulnerability one feels when starting out by oneself but I want every one of you to know that you play an important part in making it happen.   MUCHO GRACIAS!