Little Benjamin

I had the pleasure of meeting this fantastic little man not long ago in my studio. Benjamin is less than a year old and has been walking since he was nine months. He is quite the little whirlwind, running all over the place, exploring and checking things out. Benjamin came to the studio in May with both of his parents and the three of us had our work cut out for us keeping him in front of the backdrop. It is so much fun to have a child with so much energy in the studio...he really keeps you on your toes and reminds you how great it was to be his age. Here are some of the pictures from that shoot. Check out the red hair and eyes on this child...too cute.

Smashing Pumpkins @ The Orange Peel 06/23/07

I was lucky enough to be able to attend two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Orange Peel. I got to go to the first and last show. I must say that Billy Corgan and his band were one the hardest working acts I have seen before, and I have seen a lot of music! They were in the club doing full energy four hour practices every day before they went on that night. In addition, Billy was writing everyday, sometimes writing after the shows until late in the night. Everyone I encountered with the Smashing Pumpkins were down to earth, good hearted people, that really appreciated the hospitality shown to them by the venue and all of the good people here in Asheville. Here are a couple of images from the shows. To see the full gallery visit my site, go to the "rotating galleries" section and choose the Smashing Pumpkins. I will start posting a couple of images from the shows I attend here, but the full galleries will reside on www.jonleidel.com and, once the dust settles, on www.theorangepeel.net. Hope you like the images.

Smashing Pumpkins @ The Orange Peel

Welcome to Jon Leidel's Brand New Blog!

Hello Friends,
I would like to welcome all of you to my new Blog. I have been inspired by my friend Corey McNabb's blog; "McBlog" and have decided to join the blogging community.I have never had a blog before, so you will have to bare with me as I post content and learn the in's and out's of this medium. I am excited to be able to share with the world my images, emotions and whatever else I feel like sharing. I invite all of you to give me feedback on what you find here. For those of you who have been at this a while, please feel free to impart any wisdom you may have gained on me. Stay tuned, I am off to Montana, specifically Missoula, to say hello to friends I made while I was attending the Rocky Mountain School of Photography's Summer Intensive program. I will be traveling around and hope to spend a couple of days in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, and I will be posting images from my trip here. You can find a collection of my images from the last time I was out west on my site: www.jonleidel.com.
I wonder how many other photographers out there have as much trouble as I did finding a picture of themselves to post. My friend Tom Fullum took this picture when he was visiting me here in Asheville over the Christmas holiday. He is a talented fashion photographer, and we were playing with his Leaf digital back for his Mamiya RZ67. If you visit his site, the shots of the model Amber, were taken at the top of the mountain I live on, using a Profoto portable battery pack and D4 heads. If you can believe it, it was still very light out when the shot was taken.
Well, folks, that's it for now. I hope to hear from you all soon.
Cheers,
Jon