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.

Had to laugh at this posting. Had my passport renewed right after baby was born. Left in a freezing rain storm to get to photo store, race through the parking lot, losing baby's soother, hair plastered to head, with husband frantically searching for something else to distract baby. Needless to say, my photo looks like I'm on the verge of tears, my cheeks are fat ( why did I wear a turtleneck that made me look like I have no neck ),one piece of hair sticking up in the photo, husband looking like he's getting a mug shot, and baby's is open mouthed and crying. Ater that, felt vacation was quite deserved !

My passport photo is okay. The camera lady at Cosco took about 3 photos. Since it's digital she only printed out the final results. The first passport photo about 13-14 years ago was done in a office supply store by a non-professional. However bad that was it a 100 billion times better than the driver's licence photo. I could put a whole bottle of tube-tan on and I would still looked washed out.

I love this thread! I've been thinking along the lines of the rest of you...it does look like me after an international flight...gawdawful. that's their goal and they were successful.

The worst was my volunteer ID for the Atlanta Olympics. I'd of course had the worst haircut of my life that morning, but smiled anyway for the photo which just made me look like a happy freak. I almost quit volunteering because I had to wear that picture around my neck everyd day.

Good luck today Scarlett!

I don't give a flying flip about my passport nor license photo.

I'm more interested in where I can go and what I can do with them. It's not like they sit mounted in a frame on the piano for all to see. As long as someone can look at those photos and at me and quickly decide we are indeed the same person is all I give a hoot about. If I had so much time on my hands to think up these "surveys", I'd rather use it for traveling, or at least travel planning. Heck, I thought it was going to be a question about how to GET passport photos.

my guess is that you are frowning in your passport photo - rb

:-@

My passport photo is probably one of the half dozen pictures of myself I actually like! It's also the photo that has my best hair cut ever. I bless the photographer who told me to smile. I've noticed that several people who checked it have looked back at me with a big smile.

The bad news is my passport expires in Oct. so I'm in the process of getting a new one. :-(

Well, Atilla, you'd be guessing wrong. There's nothing about either picture that would cause me to waste time and money getting new pix. My last drivers lic didn't look so hot, but met its purpose until the license expired: <b>identification</b>.

oh rb, wherever did your sense of haha go? Did you leave it somewhere during your last vacation? Maybe those horrible luggage handlers misplaced it and it's waiting for you on some tropical island. Anyhow, was just a little joke.
<font color="red">Have a good day!</font>

Wow, RB, you sure have wasted a lot of travel planning time posting to and monitoring this silly thread! :-)

Erma Bombeck said something to the effect; you know it's time to go home when you look like your passport photo.

Mine looks like an old &quot;GOAT&quot;!
However, I'm getting my (neck) wattle (remember RR's) dealt with shortly by my fav surgeon in SMdA for about 20% of US fees.
M

wagonwheel: I had a turtleneck on too! Maybe that's what made our checks look fat?! Lesson learned for future photos.
attila: LOL

rb, my apologies for misleading you with the Title.
But it was ABOUT Passport Photos and it is part of my travel planning because I am going to need that Passport!
I love the responses that one looks like ones mother. I never looked like my mother so I doubt it will happen now but I do hope that does not mean I will look like my father?? :o
We went to a professional photographer, because that happens to be something I am comfortable with, rather than the lady yesterday who was bellowing at me to Look At Her!! and then took this photo of me with a bug eyed look of terror !!
So todays photos came out perfectly, we both look like our younger siblings and the renewals are off in the mail.
Next question, just to annoy rb some more..
Do you use your Passport when traveling inside the US also?
I do and just in case we don't get them back in time, do you use a second piece of ID and what is it?

Thank you all ((F))

rb, why are you so angry at your passport?

Scarlett, when I was 21 and had lost my drivers license, I had to use my passport to get into nightclubs for a bachelorette party.

The neanderthals working the front door of four different clubs didn't want to accept it as a form of ID. HELLOOOOOO!

So yes I have used it as a form of ID. Before my stepdaughter got her drivers license, she used her passport when she flew as ID.

I use my passport as I.D. because my driver's license has no picture on it.

Just wanted to add that my nephew told me that he went to our local CVS pharmacy and had his photo taken. They used a digital camera and showed him it BEFORE printing it out. When he didn't like it they took another NO CHARGE! He said it was nearly 1/2 the price he was quoted in our mall at some shop!

Great thread!

I am anxiously awaiting my passport to expire...horrendous picture!!! lol! I actually would like to just say it was lost and pay for a new one.

Our kids first passports had good pictures...but their latest renewal pics were not the best. Our daughter has the deer in the headlights look.

Now my drivers license...had a great lady who took a great picture...i love it! But alas, it expires soon. Hoping our state still does the thing of just getting a new sticker to put on it with the new expiration date, lol!

So now, the powers that be prefer that you do not smile in your passport photo...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...isas_no_smiles

Okay, you're right. I wrote passport and the article is about visas.

This was a great thread... Sorry I missed it:D

On my 1st passport photo I appear as a chipmunk with big cheeks, which were disproportionate to what I really look like. How that happened, I have no idea.

For the second photo I made sure I went to my hair stylist first with my new highlights and it turned out pretty good.

Now my driver's license, that's the bad one. I look like I had a stroke and have a bed head.

Scarlett, I have never seen this thread before. It is too funny.

My driver license photo is fantastic..and I am still shocked because the day I discovered my license had expired 30 days before I realized it, I rushed to the DMV about 4 hours before a beauty salon appointment. I was so panicky about the expired drivers license I did not care how my photo turned out. And so natuarally it turned out fantastic.

Passport photos.
Well they always were good until the last one.

The current one is soooo bad that I cringe. It was raining that day, my hair is a frizzy mess. And guess due to the lightening (hope this is the reason) I have bags that are bigger than my eyes. The worse photo of me I have ever seen. And have another 9 years to live with it. Oh sigh!

A great thread except for bringing to mind my passport photo. :&quot;&gt;