In 2004, Glen Case started his Exclusive Cigars brand. If you’ve ever been to an event with Case, you know his stories. He used to work in the banking industry, but decided to leave in order to sell his own cigar line. It wasn’t until 2008 that the Kristoff brand was started, something that came about after some issues with the draws on the original cigars. Now, over a decade later, Kristoff’s portfolio has grown immensely and the brand has a solid and noticeable following. — Charlie Minato.

Glen Case

This portrait was taken outside of Elite Cigar Cafe in Addison, Texas using a Canon 5D Mark III and a 20mm f/1.8 lens set at f/4. The shutter speed was 1/100 second at ISO 800. There was only one source of light: ambient light coming from the sun filtered through the branches and trees. The photograph was then converted from RAW and color corrected in Adobe Lightroom before being adjusted for color, contrast and sharpness using custom actions in Photoshop CC. — Brooks Whittington.

Avatar photo

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.