About The Forever Moment

The Forever Moment is a photography business based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, run by me, Mike Wiltshire. I offer wedding photography that's affordable and flexible, and styled to meet the needs of my customers.

As someone who has more yesterdays than he's got tomorrows, I realise the importance of photography as a means of emotionally connecting us to - and reinforcing our memories of - the people, places and events that are important to us. And they don't come much more important than a wedding day! If you choose me to provide you with those photographs, then it's a responsibility I'll treat seriously and undertake gladly, and I'll do it with a smile on my face. Possibly with a tear in my eye as well, although that could be to do with my dust allergy.

Photo by Zoe O'Shea

I think that my love for photography comes from my dad - he was very gifted, often winning awards from his camera club, and was once published on the cover of Amateur Photographer. Although that's where the gene comes from, it lay dormant until I was in my forties - but when I held my first camera up to my eye, I was hooked.

I only started photographing weddings in 2013; I'd previously avoided them, but after dipping a toe into that particular water, I knew that I'd found the niche I was looking for. It's to do with spending a happy day in the company of people who were previously strangers and end up as friends, visiting some beautiful venues and meeting the various photography challenges that crop up on every wedding day.

I now work full-time at wedding photography, and have done since 2016 - although I meet the age criteria for "being retired", it's a concept I don't fully understand. So if it's alright with everyone else, I'll defer "retirement" (whatever that means) and keep on working at a job I love. 

Photo by Zoe O'Shea

About the name.... a few years ago I started photographing the performing arts, and teamed up with a dancer from Portsmouth, who was in the process of starting up a dance and performing arts school. She was still at university at the time, and we fixed up a portfolio shoot in a dance studio on the campus. She did her thing, I did mine. Out of the many photos that came out of that collaboration, one in particular resonated with me. It spoke of a young woman who was totally at one with what she was doing, and the beauty, grace, poise and serenity that we associate with dance, captured in a fraction of a second and recorded for posterity. I told her it looked like she was having a forever moment, and used the words for my business name. Taking tiny little timeslices and creating forever moments, that's what I do.

Incidentally: that dancer - Amber-Leigh Mitchell - was named as Portsmouth's Businesswoman of the Year in 2015, and that start-up school (Abstract Dance & Performing Arts) was named as UK & Europe Dance School of The Year in 2017. An inspiring success story, and I'm both happy and proud to say that I still maintain my relationship with Amber and Abstract.

OK, time for a few personal insights......

Ten things I love outside wedding photography:
my wife, Barbara, and my family;
Haribos Tangfastics;
Aretha Franklin's singing;
paninis;
the view of the Itchen Navigation between Shawford and Eastleigh, seen from the train early on an autumn morning;
World Tour bike racing;
Jerusalem (the hymn, not the place);
Indian food;
books by Robert Harris, Graham Hurley and Ian Rankin;
good coffee.

Ten things I hate:
no longer having Otto's company and unconditional love;

TV adverts for gambling;
zero hours contracts;
arrogance;
bullying.

I don't really have any more things that I truly hate. 

Inspirational Quotes:
"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time." (T S Elliott, Little Gidding)

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." (Unknown, but usually and wrongly attributed to Marilyn Monroe)

"...but a pint? Why, that's very nearly an armful!" (Alan Galton and Ray Simpson, Hancock's Half Hour: The Blood Donor)

"Well now - isn't this the accident your mammy always warned you about?" (A woman in a nurse's uniform who had just taken my trousers off, revealing a pair of underpants bearing a picture of a very sad looking basset hound and the inscription "Dear Lord, help me score tonight". On reflection, since I was lying on a trolley in A&E, it's quite possible that the woman was, in fact, a nurse.)

----- Tori -----

Throughout this blog you'll find the occasional reference to Tori, my grand-daughter - she used to act as second shooter at weddings with me, but her life has since moved on and she's embarked on a different career path. Her availability is limited, but she still comes out with me when wedding bookings coincide with her days off. My loss, hairdressing's gain.

So that's an introduction to me, what The Forever Moment's about, and a side order of Tori. Read the blog to learn more, and please get in touch if there's anything specific you want to know.