Portraits: Erik Espinosa

He’s been a sales representative, a retailer and a brand owner. Now, Erik Espinosa owns his own factory and is distributing cigars for other people. In short, he’s done it all.

Espinosa’s career began in 1997 as an independent representative in Florida. In 2004, Espinosa and Eddie Ortega launched EO Brands which became known for its 601 and Murcielago brands. In 2012, the two split up and Espinosa started his own Espinosa Premium Cigars and the La Zona Cigar Factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. Since then, Espinosa’s portfolio of brands has grown along with the number of clients he produces cigars for at the factory as well as brands he distributes in the U.S.

This portrait was taken outside of Renegade Cigars in Richardson, Texas using a Canon 5D Mark III and a 50mm f/1.2 lens set at f/2.8. The shutter speed was 1/50 second at ISO 2000. There were two sources of light: ambient light coming from the incandescent lights behind Erik and video lights held to the bottom right. The photograph was then converted from RAW and color corrected in Adobe Lightroom before being adjusted for color, contrast and sharpness and converted to black and white using custom actions in Photoshop CC.

(Biography written by Charlie Minato.)