Gene Ho, the Wedding Photographer's Handbook: a guide to modern wedding photography is neither a handbook nor a guide. It reads like a first draft of an ego exercise; self congratulation with a few touches of insecurity and some self pity thrown in toward the end. The forward is written by someone who proudly includes MBA after her name, but is in dire need of a writing class to supplement her business courses. The body is a 108 page list of single sentences that if constructed in paragraph form and edited would have reduced this "book" to a 25 page pamphlet.
Each attempt to embrace this format was quickly mired in distraction. Thirty seven out of the 108 pages contain some kind of grammatical error - subject/verb agreement, punctuation, split infinitives. In this day and age, who doesn't know how to run spell check or grammar check in their word processing program? And what exactly is it with this expression, "The reason being is . . ."? A reason can not be! A reason is or it is not.
The most egregious bit of carelessness is the section titled, "Make your Pictures Complimentary". What? Make your pictures FREE? The word is used eight times; only once correctly - complementary, as in balance. I was so struck by this that I got out my highlighter. I could feel more errors waiting in the pages to come. If you are proud of your work, be proud of all of it. If you are not a strong writer or are self publishing, hire a copy editor. If, on top of that, your "book's" Forward claims you are a teacher at a technical college, for god's sake hire a copy editor!
The most striking portrait of the author came in this sentence, "That is because I will never return a favor and refer another studio". In the pages following that keen statement he tells the reader to form alliances of give and take. A few pages after that he mocks another photographer for sharing his original, less than gracious, motto. So, which is it?
Any points of note were mostly common sense. A few could relate to the use of the term "modern" in the title. This "book" was an overall disappointment. However, it was a great lesson in pride versus humility and carelessness versus professionalism.
