I recently started following the adventures of ITCHY BOOTS aka Noraly Schoenmaker on YouTube after a friend told me that Noraly was riding a motorcycle on the high mountain roads of Ladakh. My adventures in the Himalayan mountains took place in 2008, and I too traveled on those roads.
I am reworking many of the photographs that I made fifteen years ago. It is interesting to see the changes to Ladakh over these past fifteen years. I think that I was very fortunate to have visited there when I did. Here are some views from my first couple of days there at Thupten’s home near Leh.
THOMAS ALLEN BETHUNE
I have been interested in photography for most of my life. I started taking photographs with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera when I was eight years old. My early subjects were trains and engineered structures as well as landscapes and family portraits. My interests and vision have matured, but the subjects that catch my eye continue to be of the same genre as my earliest visions.
A neighbor man had a darkroom, and he showed me the basics of camera operation and darkroom processing. I took courses in art and photography in high school and college. I worked as an apprentice to a commercial wedding and event photographer, and I was in charge of a recreational dark room while I was in the military. As an adult, I earned a bachelor’s degree in photography from Humboldt State University. My experience with film formats included 35mm, 2 ¼”, and 4”x 5”. I exhibited at galleries near my home in Arcata California, and in Santa Fe New Mexico.
All my current work is digital. I am scanning many of my legacy negatives and slides. I sometimes process and print the scanned negatives. I often post them on my blog. I process all of my prints with archival media.
An award winning fine art photographer living in a redwood forest.
BA Photography
Director, Redwood Art Association, Eureka CA
Co-curator, F Street Foto Gallery, Eureka CA
Very nice photos. I enjoyed them. I’ve been watching Itchy Boots for a couple years now. She is amazing. She really works hard to make all those videos. I read that she makes over $300,000 a year with her videos and products.
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Thomas Bethune's Photographic Journal 
Very nice photos. I enjoyed them. I’ve been watching Itchy Boots for a couple years now. She is amazing. She really works hard to make all those videos. I read that she makes over $300,000 a year with her videos and products.
Marvelous! I’ll check out Itchy Boots! 💕