Who is Ryan Lane Fishwild?

Well, besides being my sister's oldest child, my nephew and my brother's Godson, Ryan Lane Fishwild is by far one of the smartest 4 year-olds around. Now some may say that all family believes their children or nephews are extremely smart, but without bias, I can honestly say, Ryan is beyond smart. Already reading at a 3rd grade level at the age of 4, Ryan's ability to deduce, analysis and of course, manipulate the situation have been prevalent in each and every interaction with him. However, he's still a kid. So, I thought that if I was going to show Ryan's Bloopers/Outakes from our family portrait pictures, I might as well tell you some of these stories or quotes that prove my point. Enjoy.

Ryan's Original 5x7 to be hung up in my parent's Family Room.
What follows are the ones the didn't quite make the cut.

Ryan and Hobbes. Now I just need to draw in a picture of University of Michigan's logo that Ryan can piss on. Speaking of Michigan...story number 1:
At a young age, Ryan quickly learned the all important "GO GREEN, GO WHITE" chant that happens at MSU games. All you had to do was call out "GO GREEN" and he would respond "GO WHITE." But he also understand the in state rivalry with Michigan's Maize and Blue.
Grandpa: "GO GREEN"
Ryan: "GO WHITE" (in a little 2yr. olds voice)
Grandpa: "GO GREEN"
Ryan: "GO WHITE"
Grandpa: "GO BLUE"
Ryan: "...no."


When Grandma and Grandpa Pierson took Ryan to Sign of the Beefcarver (a Mid-West buffet restaurant) Ryan was looking around at the table behind them and Grandma said, "Young man, turn back around in that seat right now." To which Ryan replied, "I'm not a young man, I'm a little boy."


Every year I get Mark & Lisa a year long subscription to the Detroit Zoo. It's the perfect gift that can be used all year long and the whole family can go. Even the babysitter can take the kids to the zoo with the subscription. But one day when Grandpa and Ryan had just left the new polar bear exhibit and were off to the Penquin House, Grandpa said, "Hey, Ryan let's go in this store and Grandpa will buy you a toy."
Ryan aptly replied, "Grandpa, I have hundreds of toys."
"Well, Grandpa will buy you a T-shirt."
"Grandpa! I have hundreds of T-shirts. Let's go to the Penquin House."
Not even 3 at that point and already he understood the notion of materialism. Simply amazing.


Just this past Tuesday, one day before his Grandpa's Birthday, Grandpa took Ryan out for lunch while he was babysitting him. As they in the booth eating lunch, Ryan turned to Grandpa and said:
"Grandpa, there's a card and a bunch of brownies that Mommy made for you at home."
"Ryan, was that suppose to be a secret?"
"Uh...I was just kidding about the card and brownies."


Ryan's best Richard M. Nixon's impersonation. He may also be the only 4 yr. old who knows who Barrack Obama, John McCain and Brian Williams are. Brian Williams he knows, because after Brian Williams comes on, he gets to watch Superman.


Grammar, Reading and Writing are things that Ryan absolutely loves. For example:
Grandpa: "Look Ryan at the snow globes. They're all alike."
Ryan: "Grandpa, you mean SIMILAR."


XMAS time also brought on a family outing to the bowling alley where the whole family turned out for some bumper lane action. I won the 1st game and Dad beat my cousin Adam in the 2nd game, but the highlight came elsewhere when 4yr. old Ryan beat Adam's 20yr. old girlfriend (Priscilla)...on the same bumper lane! Later that night when Priscilla was leaving, Ryan ran up to her to say goodbye and said:
"Bye Priscilla, I'm sorry I beat you at bowling."


This past year's Halloween also brought some new memorable Ryan moments. Knowing that my MOM brought over the pumpkins that were on the back porch, Grandpa asked:
"Hey Ryan, who brought you those pumpkins?"
After thinking for a moment he pointed at Grandpa and said: "You're Pierson, right?"
Grandpa nodded yes.
"Yeah, you guys did."


Spelling is one of Ryan's favorite things to do, as well as playing with Transformers (check out the tatoo!) Well one day while Lisa (his Mom) was cleaning up the other room she noticed Ryan working hard at his play desk. He then ran up stairs and promptly returned. Once more, Ryan left the table and went upstairs only to come back down shortly after. This happened several more times until Ryan went into the kitchen and asked his perplexed mother,
"Mom...How do you spell Constantinople?"


At XMAS, Ryan asked me out of the blue to teach him how to do a somersault. With a little help from the couch pillows for added protection, Ryan learned quickly, even removing the pillows soon after. When he wanted to show everyone else what he could do, we practiced once more and put the ultimate somersault show together. And when he did a real good somersault, he said:
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe how cool I am right now!"

For more photos, check out:

KIP PIERSON PHOTOGRAPHY
www.kippierson.com

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Briel "NO, I'm not the pornstar" Banks

It's not often you meet a beautiful young actress...well, maybe if you live in Los Angeles. And it's not often when you meet an attractive, young actress who's a pornstar...well, maybe in Los Angeles. But it's certainly not often when you meet a beautiful, young actress who has the same name as a pornstar...well, maybe not in Los Angeles, but in Washington, DC? Yes.

Meet Briel Banks, formerly Briana Banks. Briel and I met 5 years ago when we got a chance to work together in Ford's Theatre's new production of A Christmas Carol directed by Matt August. As you might guess Briel played Belle while I played the lowly, yet intrinsically important to the story line, Mr. Topper. Years later, our director would tell me that when he realized "Briana Banks" was in the show he wasn't really sure whether she was the "Brianna Banks" or not. He would say, "Maybe, she's retired from the business and is now legitimately acting? She has blond hair, but you can never tell, especially when they don't have all the makeup on and are actually wearing clothes." He would deduce soon enough that Briana was not the pornstar, but it made for hilarious conversation during our photoshoot yesterday. :)

Well, years later Brianna is now Briel, and doing extremely well for herself in the DC Theatre scene. Next up for Briel: She will be playing Laura in Olney Theatre's production of The Glass Menagerie June 3rd to July 5th of this year.

You can see why she's going to play Laura.


It's very easy to take pictures of someone who is naturally beautiful.






She may look like Briana Banks, but I think she looks alot like Michelle Pfeiffer.


Good old outtakes.
(Click on me to enlarge.)


One of my favorite clown shots yet.

I like to call this her Mr. Toad face.:)


Here's an old headshot that supported the "Briana Banks" myth. Apparently, if you put this headshot next to the other Briana Banks, the similarities are striking.

For more photos: click here.

Swedish Family Pierson

Deck the walls with lots of pictures,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the reason to hang these scriptures,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Don we now our best appearance,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Here's a shot of all the Piersons
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

See amazing shots of all of us
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Strike a pose and a be glad there's not more of us
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

No, this new version of Deck the Halls is not inspiring, but I'm bored and have too much time on my hands. Nonetheless, before you lies the Pierson parents 2008 XMAS gift. Years ago, a little over a decade actually, my brother, sister and I decided to give our parents a joint gift...a group photo of their kids. One photo of us looking nice and another one making silly faces and doing stupid things. They were nice photos, the frames weren't the greatest, and since we were too old and out of high school we no longer got yearly photos from school. That's when we figured they would both love a new photo of us...and we were right. Well, years later, that photo taken at the Sears department store looks outdated, in fact, it doesn't even "look" --- Our parents have taken it off the mantle and it is nowhere to be found.

SO...time to do another photo?

Yes, time indeed. Only this time we would do it ourselves. With my newly acquired skills behind the camera and our desire to not only create a nice photo of the 3 of us, but actually create an entire collection for my folks, we set out on an ambitious journey: Arrive home on Saturday the 27th, take photos secretly of us without my parents knowledge on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, edit and develop on Wednesday and have ready to be hung by Thursday. Not much of a vacation for me, but so be it. (It was my idea in the first place.) I borrowed a friends studio back in Michigan, had B&H Photo/Video in NY send out almost 20 frames a few weeks earlier to ensure they arrived on time and they would fit on the walls properly and then got to work. Difficulties, yes, unbelievable shots, absolutely, our Mom crying when she saw the photos, would you expect anything less? It was a huge success. And with the help of my brother-in-law Mark, we hung every photo that morning in time for all the relatives to see when they came over.

Besides it being a great gift and getting such a wonderful reaction from our parents, the best part has to be Mark's comment about how the pictures completely changed the room. Your eyes no longer wandered around the room until they focused on the TV. Rather, they surveyed each wall hung with art gallery style frames arranged perfectly. You would swear the room had grown in size -- that's how much of a difference it made.

All in all, I could make a few changes here and there, but considering the time constraints and scheduling difficulties we faced, it was truly a Christmas miracle that we pulled it off without them knowing. (Oh yeah, be sure to know, I guarantee my parents were pissin' and moanin' under their breath about how I wasn't "spending time with the family" while I was home...well, now they know why.)

Not only did we have a group shot, we also did individual shots of the kids and grandkids.

This would be me.

Our older sister, Lisa.

Younger brother, Kevin.

4 year-old nephew, Ryan (Lisa's kid) doing his best Ed Sullivan impersonation.

Lisa's other child, 9 month-old Emmett.

Each photo was framed separately and hung above the couch in this order. A loose interpretation of the evolution of man.


Lisa & her handy man husband, Mark.



Kevin & I in our Michigan State cycling gear.

The Fishwild Family.

The whole family - sans Mom & Dad.

And finally, the silly shot.
(You knew there was going to be one)


And Now...THE BLOOPERS!!!

Trial and Error.
(Click on the picture to enlarge. Notice the anger boiling underneath. A miracle we ever got a good one.)
(Displayed in sequential order, I particularly like shot 7, 8 and 10)



Oooo!!! We are serious triathletes. Oooo!!!




Strange, very strange.


Kevin's attempt at making me laugh and my attempt at posing for a photo of myself.


Actually, looks like a pretty good one of him.


Alternate shot. Cute.
(Getting Mark to smile is rare)

Goober!



Hate looking at myself.

No comment.

Ryan being Ryan - He loves this T-Shirt.
(Check out the Transformers tatoo!)

Me Kevin, me pedal fast.

Looks centered to me.

"Oh, I felt that one."


Maybe my new headshot?


Let's see who can come up with the best caption for this one.
(Leave a comment with your ideas for a caption)

And Finally...


"Guys? Guys? Where are you guys? This is not funny."