While at the brand new Blue Smoke in Dallas, José Blanco of La Aurora graciously allowed me some time to photograph him for our Icons of Cigars™ Series. He has been photographed before, of course, but I am thinking this portrait was a bit different This was the first time I had met him, and I was extremely impressed not only by his knowledge of cigars (and his use of Twitter), but also by the fact that he speaks his mind, which is a rare quality in the world of cigars these days…

I wanted to get a photograph of José that showed a quiet dignity, and decided to use a simplistic background to achieve it…There are three main light sources in the photograph: The lamp, a video light from the left that was lighting his face (and casting the shadow on the wall) and a video light on the right that was highlighting the smoke from his cigar… Notice how the smoke is highlighted, but the cigar and hand are in shadow (as I wanted)…