Passport Photos
 

The Title says it all. Do you love yours or hate it? How many did you take before you chose the one you have?
The Yankee and I had to renew our passports. That part is easy. The photograph is the hard part.
My old photo was taken in a booth in the court house. There was a delay, then the flash went off and surprised me. I look like a blonde deer in the headlights.
The Yankee looks like a Yankee or something, all squinty eyed and mean.

Now here we are in Florida, we went to Kinkos to get the photos.
I look like my grandmother (she was pretty but old) and my husband looks like a serial killer.
Tomorrow we go to a professional photographer and we will make him keep taking the picture until we get it right!!

Now tell me how much you love your passport photo and describe why ?
Have you ever had anyone (Customs) say anything about it?

I want to skip the photo and get my retina scanned 8o)

Mine's OK; not the most flattering photo in the world but it does look like me. :-) We got ours done at Costco, and the guy was nice enough to only charge us for one photo.

I've only used it once, but no one at Customs commented on it.

Lee Ann

LOL! Actually, mine's okay but not great by any means. I like my driver's license better.

My seven-year-old's passport photo is very light (little contrast and light) and I have to wonder if we might encounter problems with this. I was thinking his photo should be retaken.

Any comments or suggestions?

When I was horrified at the photo on the original passport, they said I could get another one, when I got a new passport..sigh.
They do say to wear a dark color, white shirts are not good. Something else we did wrong :)

I, like most people hate my passport photograph.

Who was it who said that when you look like your passport photograph its time to go home?

Anyway, with the advent of virtually everyone having digital cameras and photo correction software on their laptops , surely we will start to see slightly enhanced more pleasant passport photographs. I might just smudge a few of those laughter lines out or get rid of those blurry eyes from the night before - just as long as I don't remove that small mole on my cheek!

I had my passport photo taken at Walgreens. They have a magic camera there. It was the most amazing thing. They pointed the camera at me, clicked a button, the flash went off, and out came a picture of my mother!!!

I actually like mine but it took 4 tries! It was taken at a photo lab called Japan Camera and the guy was also nice enough to only charge me for 1 take.

Elindilpickle, I would think that if the passport office thought the photo was accepatable then there shouldn't be too much cause for concern. Just my opinion though.

sart29 , thanks for the belly laugh!

My husband has that "don't #$%#@&*! with me" look.
My cheeks look fat and I'm smiling as if I'm constipated.
My son (10 months old at the time) has this "what the heck is going on" look on his face, mouth open with his bib around the neck (you can't tell but I just know it was soaked with drool).
We love our photos. :-D

The bad picture serves a purpose, since, as the late Erma Bombeck wittily put it: "Once you start looking like your passport photo, it's time to go home!!"

Mine's pretty average, but I had to laugh at the topic because we've just been through an episode with my 11-year-old daughter, who is mortified by hers (you know how 11-year-old girls are). Her picture was taken close to five years ago. When we were checking in for a flight recently at Manchester, England, the gate agent made a joke about it, and that prompted a major pout (it was a relatively young, male gate agent, which didn't help matters). Fortunately, it's about time to renew it.

It's a classic curse (folklore?) "let you look like your passport photo!"

Don't know who it was that said " If people looked like their passport photos very few countries would let them in"

If they would only let you smile a little, hold your head in the best possible position, instead of looking like you should be holding a number under your chin :D
I do like that idea of the digital smoothing out of the little wrinkles ~

I didn't mind my first few, but the current one is ghastly -- not only do I look my age, but I look like my mother at the point when she started looking like her mother.

Phil Flash is VERY handy in Photoshop, so maybe I should get a little electronic facelift. :D

My passport pix I like, it's my license I HATE!

Last renewal time (60 pounds lighter) I went to the DMV and re-took the pix, sent it to Albany and eargerly awaited the new license. What did they do...those DMV morons used the OLD PICTURE! You just can't win!

I try very hard to think about what I feel like standing in lines in the international terminal. Once I've got that consternated, exasparated look just right, I have them snap the picture.

That way, when I'm actually in the airport - it looks just like me. :)

Hi Scarlett.

I absolutely hate my US passport photo, but don't mind my EU shot so much. Too bad I can't stricly use that one. Neither are the epitome of a good photograph, though, at any rate.

How do they manage to make me look so pastey on color film? I have always preferred black and white passport photos, but apparently no one does those anymore. I have honestly come to believe that passport photo film was introduced as a conspiracy by the government to make us all look awful. :)

My first passport photo was pretty good.

My renewal photo was also good.

Until I compared it with my first passport and saw how much I had aged in 10 years.

The husband looks lost in his photo.

I was tired and it was a rainy day in NY when I took the photo so my hair was a bit messy and I had some bags under my eyes. While it wasn't my intention, that photo probably looks more like I look after arriving at my destination on some long international flight than what I look like on a normal day.

My driver's license photo looks pretty good though.