Interview by Scottie Magro
Lori O'Connor of Basement Art Creations is a great photographer, a helpful person and has a eye for color and quirky cuteness. You can't help but love her items.... ( I should know I own three!)
Getting to know Lori and "bumping" in to her at many art show's has been a pleasure and rewarding, she is witty and fun to talk to!.
I asked Lori three question for our little interview. This is what she had to say:

1.What Camera do you use ( as a photographer myself I always love to know)?

Ever since college, when I bought my first “refurbished” Canon AE-1, I have been hooked on Canon Cameras. I put that camera through the ringer and it always worked great for me. Seeing that it was already on its second life and was eventually held together by electrical tape (dropping your camera while trying to take photos at a concert with a cast on your hand really hurts in more ways than one!) I was always amazed by the wonderful photographs I was able to produce. When it came time to switch to digital I was impressed and quite pleased to find that wonderful Canon quality was also present in their digital line of cameras. I am currently using the brilliant Canon EOS 30D SLR and while it has a ton of extra features, I still tend to use it as a standard SLR (sans the bells and whistles if you will).


2. How did you get started ( what sparked your idea to take photos of cute little items)?

I have been taking photographs for a big chunk of my life, working at a newspaper, doing freelance for magazines, musicians, weddings, babies, pets, products for catalogs and product photos for websites, I have kind of run the gambit of photography jobs. With that said, I have always been attracted to the small and peculiar! I enjoy having to scoot in and take a closer look at an object and this seems to lend itself to the type of photographs I have been creating. When I had my son my choices just kind of fell into place. After a fun day of photographing him being goofy, he placed a couple of his wind up toys on the stool next to me and when I looked over I thought “hey, I like that” the way they were grouped together just caught my eye so I snapped a few shots and the photograph “What...What Did He Say?” came to life! After that I just made a conscious effort to start photographing only the things that I really enjoyed photographing, things that made me smile and things I found intriguing. So far...it seems to be working out OK!


3. You seem to have a bright color scheme going. Do any colors or items really attract you? ( I'm a black and White person....but your items are very colorful...so what draws you to that?)

It is funny because I never thought to myself “lets do something colorful”, it kind of just happens! I love black and white photographs and often take them myself. I love deep, dark, rich colors (my house and wardrobe are filled with them!) ...but for the many fun items I choose as subjects I just try to stay faithful to what feels right, what makes an image stand out and grab attention. Sometimes it’s muted, soft, somber tones but quite often it ends up being bright, bold and colorful as well! I don’t think there are any specific colors that I favor over others but I do like it when there are a limited number of colors present (one or two for the really bright photos)!


Photographs:

1. "What...What Did He Say?"
2. "Clive Exercise In Expressionless Expressions - Two" - Clive seems contemplative...
3. "Dance Like No One (Living) Is Watching" (this also seems to be a customer favorite too!)

You can visit Lori at any of her web sites:
www.BasementArtCreations.com
www.BACLORI.etsy.com
www.BACLORI.1000Markets.com
www.BACLORI.artfire.com