This site is a photographically based website centering on the Wildlife that can be found in the Garden of England and surrounding areas.

The primary aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive library of modern images of British Wildlife and habitats for the use of the Wildlife Trusts and associated Charities without recourse to commercial libraries. The main area of the site, therefore, is the Image Gallery reached through the menu on the left of this page.

During the course of 2006 we moved from an HTML based static site to the one you have now found. This has enabled the project to expand and include relevent news and interest items more easily. We also added a forum. As the project has expanded, so has the area that we cover and regular image requests now come in from places as far afield as Suffolk and Dorset on a regular basis.

There are a huge variety of Birds, Animals, Flowers and Fungi that reside, visit or over-winter within the boundaries of this wonderful County and it is the intention of this site to make available pictures of both common and rarer species for your perusal. Recently, we have added collections of images that reflect Farming and Environmental issues that affect us all. We have tried to make your visit as interesting to you as possible, so please have a browse by using the navigation links on the left of the pages or join in the Forum

A little History 

WAK is an acronymn for WildaboutKent and is probably appropriate as we are a somewhat WAKy bunch.

The whole thing started off in March 2004 when half a dozen people met up at Wildwood for a day of Photography. That day had been organised through the pages of the ePHOTOzine website and, at the time, none of the photographers had met each other.

Being March, the weather was not at it's most predictable and a fair amount of time was spent nattering while dodging the rain showers. (What, I hear you exclaim, photographers that talk to each other! Yes, we do exist!)

After a bit of a false dawn, where a website was set up only to be hi-jacked by those who wanted to make a commercial venture out of it, the WildaboutKent site was started in October 2004 with one aim in mind.

The idea was that the Photographers, who wanted to 'put something back' into the Nature Reserves run by various Trusts and Charities that those photographers had had access to and used, mostly free of charge, would offer their images to those running the sites, completely free of charge.

The project started out in a fairly small way, with a simple website showing a few choice images and slowly we managed to let the Charities know we were out there on the web As images were added and the library expanded, so did the reputation until, by the Spring of 2006, with page loads often topping the 1000 a day mark, it was deciided that a more usable website was needed.

Marden Meadow by Mike Taylor. Used by Kent Wildlife Trust for it's Corporate Folder.

December 2005 had seen the addition of a Forum/Message board but, in the first attempt to use a database driven site, it managed to get itself wiped out, so a second was started while we looked deeper into operating systems. That one, which will became defunct in October 2005, and has now been replaced with the one built into this site.

The project itself is now being concentrated on this site and, as we get it up to the content quality of the original site we hope all our visitors and patrons will migrate with it. (The old site address will, of course, be pointed this way at the appropriate time, although it still attracts a good number of visitors.)

Bodies such as the Kent Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Thanet Wildlife Trust and a number of smaller Charities concerned with Wildlife conservation have all used images sourced from the project. Kent Wildlife Trust now regularly send us Picture Requests in advance of their needing the images so that members can actually go out and shoot 'to order' if they are so inclined. All of the images are credited to the photographer and often a copy of the publication for their files. Kent County Council have bought images through the site for use in Cross border Projects with Nord pas de Calais. A number of the images adorning the new KWT Site Guide were sourced from this site.

Occasional meetings are arranged, although the new forums enable individuals to arrange to meet others for an informal day's photography at any time and this does happen regularly. A mid-2006 non-photography meeting was held at Tyland Barn to decide how the project was to go forward and you are reading the result by browsing this website. Quarterly meetings are now held to ensure that the site  and project as a whole get steered in the right direction.

With over forty participating members, not nesscessarily all photographers, the project is going from strength to strength because, as we all know, from little acorns....

We hope you enjoy your visit.

For commercially available images, please see Wildaboutpictures