Stress free passport photos
Categories: Places To Go
I had to get an express passport a few weeks
ago and I am horrible at having my picture taken. I closed my eyes 4 different times the nice lady tried to take my
picture and I spent $15 on top of all the express fees I was paying.As I sat there getting picture after picture taken, I thought to myself: "If I, a 32 year old woman, am this bad at getting a picture done imagine trying to do this with a young child."
Today we heard about this easy to use passport photo site and all I can say is I wish I'd heard of it earlier this month. Before I humiliated myself with my inability to keep my eyes open in a photo. i thought I'd share it anyway in case you are in need of a passort, for yourself but especially for your child.
Fussy baby? That's fine try again later! No more impatient Kinko's worker questioning your parenting skills when your three-year-old won't sit still for the picture. The service is free but taking as many shots as it takes to get an acceptable one in the comfort of your own home? Priceless.
(I debated showing you the passport photo I ended up with but I just couldn't put you through that.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nicola 2-22-2006 @ 6:27PM
You have brought back a flood of funny memories. We had to get Kellan's passport photos taken at 2 months old in order to get his US passport when we went for his citizenship appointment. That was difficult enough with both of us present at our friendly local photo shop. Along comes the US embassy visit in London where my husband could not be present while I dealt with Kellan's citizenship issues. Guess what? Apparently the US passport photos are a totally different size to the UK passport photos. So, here I am with a 3 month old baby, an armload of documentation, a carrier pack that I couldn't actually wear because it kept having to go through metal scanners, and being sent ON MY OWN to find a shop in London that takes US passport photos (yes, they listed a few, but I had no idea where I was!). We finally arrive at one such shop where it takes me ages to get some service, at which point the photographer insists that my son must SIT UP on a stool in order to have the passport photo taken. He was 3 months old! I had to hold him to the best of my ability without being in any way present in the photo. And so, my now two year old son has one of the funniest passport photos that I've ever seen. Poor lad.
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Jenny 2-22-2006 @ 6:29PM
We went to England when we only had one child, and we just took our own photos of her and cropped them suitably for the Passport Agency. You used to have to print on paper that could withstand high heat since the photo was fused into your passport, but now they are just scanning it digitally so any photo paper is fine. They have a good brochure with information on the dimensions here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/guide/download/download_884.html
I won't say it was a fast project, though. Getting the right shot is always a challenge! And then there was the cropping. So ePassport might be faster...
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Meredith 2-22-2006 @ 6:34PM
We just did this as well and went to Costco because it takes 10 minutes and costs $5 each. However, for what I saved in money I lost in self respect.
The nice lady took the photo and showed it to me for approval. After glancing at the giant face that swallowed mine then pocked it with zits (that is right, I am getting acne at 33 - thanks genes!), I decided that no photo would ever do my internal image justice. So I nodded, said 'whatever' and paid the $5.
Now you tell me...NOW! Oh, what a sad sight I could have avoided. Maybe in the future I will be lucky enough to use my passport photo as a very bad "Before".
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Laura 2-22-2006 @ 7:39PM
Man. I wish i had this site about 2 weeks ago when I was running around getting my then 4 week old pictures taken for her passport. We went to 3 different places before the good people at the post office finally agreed to take her picture. After 2 shots we were done. She did great, but I could see it was really stressful for the post office worker.
the upside was that then they got to tell me how beautiful my daughter is.
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april 2-28-2006 @ 8:25PM
Wow, thank you! This is great. I have just had to do new passports for myself and my younger son (both US and UK for both of us) this page would have been great. I will tell others about it.
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