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 Quesada’s distribution arm SAG Imports in Miami) were there to introduce their new line, the Quesada Tributo .

I talked to Manuel for a bit, but most of my time was spent discussing various matters with Terence Reilly, who I must say impressed the hell out of me. Both of them are amazingly nice, down to earth and truly passionate about the business and pleasures of cigars. Thanks to both of them (and to the staff at Two Brothers) for a great night of cigars :)

I also got the chance to try the new Quesada Tributo, and let me tell you, after smoking one of them, I am eager to do a formal review. I think quite a few people are going to be surprised by this stick when it is released to the general public.

For the portrait, I noticed a strong shaft of sunlight streaming through an open door which just happened to hit exactly where I needed it to in order to make this photo. I put Manuel directly in the light, and told him to do his thing, and photographed his reflection in a painting (of some cigars, ironically enough) as he smoked, (that is smoke on the top of the photo, if you are wondering).

 

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Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.