For this first installment of our Cigar Art series I’d like to introduce everyone to two talented photographers that have taken their love of cigars and photography and blended them to create some amazing photo art.  Although I appreciate many types of cigar art photography is one of my favorites since I enjoy it as a hobby as well.

Artist: Troy Taormina
Location: Houston, TX
Website: taorminaphoto.com

Troy is a great BOTL that I have known via a few internet forums for about a year now.  He was first exposed to cigars in high school when he and some friends would grab a pack of Swisher Sweets at the bait shop when heading out on a fishing trip and admits his lack of fishing skills meant they spent most of the time chatting and smoking cigars.

Cigars and Wedding Rings by Troy Taormina

In the early 90′s he began to move into more premium cigars, but due to the limited information at the time smoked mostly Macanudos.  After discovering internet cigar forums in 2004 he began to expand his cigar collection and enjoy a wider variety of smokes.  Today some of his favorites include most Don Pepin blends, Illusione, Tatuaje and many Habanos especially El Rey del Mundo, Ramon Allones, Montecristo and Bolivar.

Troy currently works part-time as a photographer with his main focus being sports photography.  Once he began using Photoshop he realized that he could not only improve his photographs but also create many artistic effects based on the photograph.  Photographing cigars was a natural step for Troy, merging two of his passions, and he enjoys taking cigar pictures that use interesting lighting or contain cigar smoke.

To see more of Troy’s work please visit his website at www.taorminaphoto.com.  Troy is available for commissioned pieces and strives to make any photo a very personal piece.  One of his favorites was a photo on canvas for two friends that had recently been married, both of them smoked cigars and he created a picture with their rings and their favorite cigars.  His work is available as a photograph, digital media or as a large canvas print stretched on a frame that is ready to hang on the wall.

Artist: Bryan Glynn
Location: Clearwater, FL
Websites: BGPictures.com and CigarObsession.com

I’ve admired Bryan’s work for a while and was first introduced to his photography through posts he made on Twitter showcasing some of his photos on Cigar Obsession.  Bryan can’t pinpoint the exact time when he got into cigars; he had been a cigarette smoker for many years and quit cold turkey five years ago at which point his interest in cigars spiked.  Prior to that he would purchase the occasional cigar to smoke when he was out with friends.  He recalls his first major purchase was bundle from Thompson’s that included all the accessories and about 100 assorted house blends.  After working his way through those he became more interested in the premium brands this past spring and really dug into magazines, trips to the B&M and websites to gain all the information he could.

Wine Glass with Cigar Bands by Bryan Glynn

As he began to explore cigars Bryan realized he also had the desire to do a certain type of video review to share with others, this is where his cigar review blog, CigarObsession.com, was born.  When browsing Cigar Obsession you’ll find many examples of his cigar art as well as great video of reviews for a variety of cigars.

Bryan is now a full-time photographer, a career move he made a few years ago after working in engineering and IT fields for many years.  Like a lot of people, Bryan was laid off and took the opportunity to turn a serious hobby into a profession.  After trying his hand at a variety of styles he now focuses on classical, vintage wedding photos but prefers corporate and advertising studio work as evidenced in much of his cigar art.

Moving into the cigar art was one of those things that he wished he’d thought of sooner.  He’d always enjoyed the two but never put them together – even though he had done cigar product shots for companies in the past.  One day he simply grabbed some cigars and started taking pictures.  He tried to focus on at least one cigar photo per day to continue to hone his skills.

Bryan offers all of his photos for sale in a variety of formats and part of his business is also printing and framing, he is a master fine art printer.   He does this not only for his own work but for several others in the Tampa Bay area as well.   For more samples of his work and additional information please visit his websites.

The slideshow below shows many more photos by these great artists.  For optimal viewing click FS in the bottom right to view full screen.