“The Thunder Rocks and Rolls” was created by Chris Fritchie of McKinney, Texas. When it comes to kids who have chosen the arts as their passion doing something cool and different is a big challenge. While talking to Reid, a high school senior, about his passion for percussion and his dream of attending the Berkley School of Music in Boston, Chris noticed the young man used words like insane, whirlwind, exciting, scary, nerve-racking, and others. “He was feeling overwhelmed, not knowing if he’d get in,” explains Chris. “But prior to this session, Reid learned that he had been accepted. “You could see the excitement in his face.” As an image maker and story teller, it seemed only natural to Chris to create a “storm” image that represented the hard work and chaos of trying to reach his dream. The final image took some time and involved over 100 layers to create. Reid was photographed on green screen and cut out to remove green spill. The road and the tornado came from Adobe stock. Once all of the elements were obtained, the entire image was connected to the subject with a black brush and creating shadows. “The Thunder Rocks and Rolls” is a play off of the Garth Brooks song, “The Thunder Rolls.” As Chris explains, “We had Reid set up his drum kit in the studio and I photographed him with some harsh light. Mom seemed to have had the most fun since she was the one who was in charge of keeping him dowsed in water.” Chris will be one of the instructors at the 2020 Texas School of Professional Photography.
