halfwheel

Icons of Cigars™ — Matt Booth

This is the last of the Icons of Cigars™ portraits I was able to shoot at the IPCPR Show in Vegas this year… I was a bit surprised when I met Matt Booth in person for the first time. Considering his “Media Image,” I expected a stuck up ego maniac. What I met instead was a [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Jonathan Drew

Jonathan Drew is a very unique man. A true cigar guy, larger than life, always talking, always laughing, but also extremely knowledgeable about everything related both to the business and tobacco side of things. Although I just recently met him face to face for the first time, I have talked (on email, twitter, text and [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Janny García

When I started this series of portraits, some of the people I most wanted to photograph were the members of the García Family, as (to me), they represent some of the most influential people in the cigar business today. I was able to photograph Pepín with my first portrait, but the other members of the [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — José Blanco

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 [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Marvin Samel

I heard that Marvin Samel, Co-Owner of Drew Estate cigars was going to be in town at the Up in Smoke on Mckinney Avenue for an event over the weekend, so I thought I would stop by and see if he would be amicable to a quick portrait… I don’t know what I was expecting, [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Manuel “Manolo” Quesada Jr.

Last week I was invited to an event at Two Brothers Cigars, a great B&M in Plano (and I would say, one of the best in the Metroplex) to meet and photograph Manuel “Manolo” Quesada, Jr. of MATASA, Casa Magna and Fonseca cigars, just to name a few. He and his nephew Terence Reilly, (who runs [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Jorge Padrón

Last week, I had the pleasure of photographing cigar legend Jorge Padrón for my Icons of Cigars™ series when he made a stop into Dallas (actually Rockwall) at one of the best B&M shops around, En Fuego. Great atmosphere, great people and a great layout for the shop made for a wonderful time. Talking with [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Sam Leccia

Last week, I posted some videos (taken by Jay “Cigarbuff” Bitzer) of the portrait shoot with Sam Leccia of Cain/Nub Cigars (you can see them here, if you have not already)…Sam was gracious enough to allow me a bit of time to photograph him (and even Hotboxed a Cain F!), and below is the final [...]

Portrait Shoot & Cigar Rolling with Sam Leccia of Cain/NUb Cigars

In my never ending quest to photograph portraits of all of the Icons of Cigars™, I asked Sam Leccia of Cain/Nub Cigars for 5 or 10 minutes in between rolling cigars at the Cain Event at my favorite shop, Cigar Shop and More in Addison, Texas… The great videos were photographed by another local photographer, [...]

Icons of Cigars™ — Benjamin Menendez

Late last year, Benji Menendez was coming to Dallas to promote his brand new cigar, the Partagas Master Series, as part of his “Benji Menendez Socials” when he had a medical issue that made it impossible to attend…He said he would be back this year to meet everyone, and last week, he made good on [...]