John Oates: Freelance writer, photographer and editor
Travel writing
Since winning the Young Travel Writer of the Year award in the UK’s Guardian newspaper in 2002, I have written for publications including Real Travel, ABTA Magazine, Metro, Islands, Sublime and various in-flight magazines. My areas of interest include ecotourism, budget travel and anything offbeat or adventurous. I have also been the travel correspondent for Disability (formerly Disability Product News) magazine since 2006 and am available to write on accessible travel.As well as articles, I also research and write guidebooks. Most recently this has been for Rough Guides: I updated two chapters of their Philippines guide (due Nov 2011) and from June 2011 I will be working on their guide to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Previously I contributed to both editions of the Footprint guide to European City Breaks and the Latvia section, plus cross-Baltic material, for the Eyewitness Guide to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Dorling Kindersley).
Photography
I consider photography to be an essential part of my work, and always bring back images to illustrate articles. I was shortlisted for the New Talent category of the Travel Photographer of the Year competition in 2009, for a portfolio of images taken during Easter Week in the Philippines.I also sell stock images both directly and through Alamy and Photographers Direct.