Ron Toft
TRAVEL JOURNALIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER

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Not many people are lucky enough to make a living out of doing what they enjoy most.

I consider myself to be one of the fortunate few, for I am a freelance journalist and photographer specialising mainly in wildlife and nature-oriented travel features for magazines all over the world.

. . . . .
 

I have been interested in all things natural since I was 11, my main schoolboy passion being astronomy. I also collected rocks, minerals and fossils. I wanted to be an astronomer when I left school, but I was utterly useless at maths. Being reasonably good at English, I took up journalism instead, serving a three-year apprenticeship on a weekly newspaper.

As the years passed, so my interests broadened. Enthralled by the BBC’s natural history programmes, I became hooked on wildlife. Photography - merely a hobby initially - later became an invaluable additional skill.

During my journalistic career, which has now spanned more than 40 years, I’ve turned my hand to all manner of things, from editing newspapers and producing guidebooks to planning PR campaigns.

. . . . .
 

After my leisure and tourism PR consultancy went bust during the economic slump of the early 90s, I began forging a new career as a travel writer. Now I start each day with a zest I never experienced in my early professional life.

I meet genuinely interesting and extremely knowledgeable people in a wide range of fields and get paid to write articles on subjects as diverse as kayaking through the coastal creeks of Gulf Coast Florida, exploring the Avenue of Volcanoes in Ecuador, learning traditional skills from South African bushmen and watching all manner of wild birds along the Rio Grande in southern Texas.

The future once looked as bleak as a grouse moor in the depths of winter. Slowly but surely, however, I’ve managed to turn things around. Today, 18 years after my PR business folded, I’ve got plenty of work, although I always welcome more. They say every cloud has a silver lining, and that’s certainly proved to be true as far as I am concerned.

 

 

GEOGRAPHICAL SPECIALITIES The world is my oyster. I am prepared to go anywhere at any time (within reason!), although I tend to gravitate towards Africa, North America and Europe. I have visited many contrasting countries during the past couple of years, including Zambia, Ecuador, Cyprus, South Africa, France, Malta, Greece (Kalymnos and Telendos), the USA (Florida), Cape Verde Islands, Poland, The Gambia and Egypt. Within the UK, I have roamed from Devon, the Forest of Dean and Pembrokeshire to Northumberland, York, Glasgow and the Orkney Islands. ^

Ron Toft


. . .

CONTACT ME
. . .

MY PAGES ON
TheTravelEditor.com
. . .