As an emerging wedding photographer, I was seeking a definitive resource that provided good compositional examples, ideas for running the scheduling of a wedding day, advice about business management and customer service, and workflow. I found all this and much more in Damien Lovegrove's superb book.
Where other wedding photography books failed for me, this one stood out heads and shoulders above the rest. I found that this book (while demonstrating a distinct British flavour, given the high formality of many of the weddings photographed) still transcended international barriers, where everything became relevant for me even as an Australian photographer.
Damien Lovegrove has a clear, succinct and easy-to-read narrative style of writing. He offers solid examples of his fine work, technical information and the environmental context relating to how they were achieved, together with detailed information about how to manage a wedding day, post-wedding workflow, and developing your business for profit.
Mr Lovegrove doesn't bog the book down with explanations of basic photographic theory, nor does he spend too much time discussing the type of camera or flash you should be using. He jumps straight into the nitty-gritty of the issue, and assumes that the reader already has at least some experience with cameras and photography. If he ever produced a book with detailed lighting concepts and theory, photographers would have the perfect library for their career in just two books.
Mr Lovegrove is genuinely inspirational and explains that he too worked from the ground up, and that only through hard work and dedication was his ambition realised.
This book was absolutely fantastic and I know that I will be buying any of his future books, his DVDs and attending his seminars. Damien Lovegrove is truly a master in his field. This book, above any other non-technical resource you may be considering, is vital for any photographer serious about becoming great.