June 14, 2010 Brooks Whittington Portraits

Portraits: 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 him, Jorge seemed at once to be larger than life, but was also extremely approachable. He talked to everyone for hours about this and that and took tons of photos with everyone, and while I did not know what I was thinking he would be like (I had never met him), for someone in his position in the industry, he was very affable. If you have not seen this interview with him, it is a very interesting read.

For this portrait, I wanted something that showed the intensity that I could feel coming off him in waves when we spoke, so I decided to shoot a photo with no distracting elements at all in the frame, that way, you (the viewer) are forced to concentrate on just him.

Jorge Padrón.png

Thanks to Jorge for giving me the time needed to shoot this portrait, and as always, to A.J. for holding the light.

Jorge Padrón Padrón Piloto Cigars Inc.
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Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. 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, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.

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