Some of her subjects have to be thinking, where the heck is she pointing the camera? Because it’s sure not at my face.

They’d be right, but they shouldn’t be surprised. The oblique image is something of a specialty for Laurel McConnell, and couples booking her for wedding photography know that in addition to portraits, groups and reception coverage, they’re going to get, as she says, “something different thrown in.” And it’s likely “something different” is going to be a lot more fun and a lot more memorable.

But most don’t ask about what she’s doing while she’s doing it. “They assume I’m shooting their faces,” Laurel says. “The ones who are holding a smile, though, I’ll tell them I’m not shooting their faces right now, so they can relax.”

Sometimes when she’s shooting she’ll lock the focus and recompose, and when her subjects see her shift the camera they wonder what that movement is all about. “So I’ll explain that I’m putting them in the corner—or chopping off their heads. But for the most part they don’t seem to know and can’t envision what I’m doing.”

Once in a while she’ll make them accessories before the fact. The shadow dance on the beach, for instance. “I told them I was shooting the shadows, so they should do something with their arms and feet.” Smart stuff: it gave her interesting, animated shadows, plus by their gestures her subjects could pick themselves out of the group.

Laurel gets her bookings for weddings and engagement sessions from wedding planners, from advertising and from personal referrals, and in all cases her clients know what they’re getting. “They recognize that each shoot is driven by the inspiration I get from them. I think they identify with the individuality of the shoot—they know that their shoot is in fact their shoot—it’s specific to them, their personalities and their likes. For engagement shoots we visit locations that are special to them—a neighborhood, a first-date spot—and we go from there. I’ll set people up in a really cool spot, then shoot around in there and explore, letting their personalities come through. It’s kind of guided photojournalism.”

Laurel’s style has developed over the years, but the basic ideas were always in place. “When I first started shooting I didn’t know what was expected of me or what people expected from wedding photography, so I just went by this: if I were getting married I’d want some details and portraits and then I’d want pictures in between all those moments—people having fun within those little setups—and I just kind of developed it from there.”

She gives her subjects lots of latitude. “I don’t want to make them do anything their not comfortable with, anything that isn’t natural to them, even something as basic as the way they stand. I want them to bring their personalities and their own flavor to the ideas that I have. It’s a collaboration in that respect: my ideas and their attitudes and personalities.”

The engagement shoot is Laurel’s chance to get to know the couple; for them it’s almost a practice session. “Most people haven’t had professional photography before; they don’t know what to expect, don’t know how to act, so everything is keyed to making them comfortable and natural.” The session is, she says, “a date for three, where we just go and hang out and have a good time and make some memories and start a friendship, so on the day of the wedding they know what to expect. They know I’m not taking them too seriously and they don’t have to perform for me—they can just relax and be themselves, and I’ll work it out from there.”

Check out Laurel’s “photography for really fun people” at her website, www.mcconnellphoto.com.