Baby passport photos

So maybe this should be in the punching bag section, but I had to have a little laugh/ rant and see if anyone else has had the same experience.

We are going o/s in June so I'm getting Peter's passport organised. Today I got his passport pics done....what an ordeal!!! Can you even believe they require babies to be looking directly at the camera and have their mouth closed?! Its like some kind of crazy test of advanced mothering skills. It took 30 minutes....30....of standing with one foot on a chair resting Peter on my thigh, trying to control him while keeping my hands out of the picture.

And then after I finally got the hard-won pictures, I managed to drop them twice on the way out of the shopping centre....go me.

We did get a good picture in the end, although Peter has this little spike of hair sticking up like JackJack from the Incredibles.

Anyone else have ridiculous baby passport pics stories?!!

I dont know whether to give u a hug or PMSL!!!!

Maybe a "well done" is in order :clap:

Dont have any passport pic stories, but I cant believe the same picture rules apply!

Yes! What an ordeal with DS we had. He was 4 months old. We did the photo ourselves rather than risk stuffing up at the photo shop at $10 a pop. DS just thought it was hilarious and with each picture taken his expression got more and more merry and we kept saying "stop smiling!"

We had him on a white sheet outside on an overcast day (best light for taking photos) and went rapid-fire with the digital camera. No joke, we had about 70-80 photos taken. We picked out a couple that looked acceptable and took them to Rabbit Photo and the guy there was really helpful and helped us size them so that DS' face was the correct measurements.

Then when I made the appointment at the post office I showed them the photos then and there and got them to tell me which ones they would accept... and then those were the ones I got endorsed on the back ready for the application interview. No way was I getting to the interview stage to have the photos rejected then.

I still can't believe the requirements for the baby passport photograph...looking straight at camera, head not on an angle, mouth closed, neutral expression. Surely someone who was not a parent came up with that.

I lost Imran's passport :doh: so we had to get new photos last week. He was in foul mood and he had just chucked a tanty on the way to the camera shop so he just shut his mouth and glared at the guy with the camera. We got a perfect shot first go lol but the angry look in his eye should give any immigrations person the heebie jeebies.

yup I had my boys done last year, not quite babies but when you teach a child to smile when they see the camera then try and tell a 2 year old NOT to smile it is difficult!
Ended up they weren't right, had a shadow so I had to go back and do it again! Lucky the rules are if they screw up, they have to redo them for free!

I'm travelling with K next month to NZ. Lodged his application a few weeks ago and the lady at Australia Post told me they are a little bit more leniant with children's photos because of the obvious but yeah totally get what everyone else is saying about the neutral expression etc ..... like duh when does a child not want to smile when you say their name! :lol:

I had the same thing with DS's Australian passport photos - post office here wont do photos for babies so we had to trudge all the way to the mall. I just put a white cloth behind his head and left him in the pram. But try and keep DS's tongue in his head? No way! So he's got his tongue sticking out in the picture and they accepted it! Now I'm applying for his French passport, and wanted better photos but they're so bad! It took 40 minutes of trying to get him to stop laughing at the woman with the camera. In the end she picked the best out of the 14 photos and Photoshopped it to be almost ok. His Bonds singlet is soooo French...

hey,
yep same issue my sons head was slightly turned but could see top of his ears. his mouth is ever so slightly open too. i was not lucky enough to hold him i was asked to lay him on a towel on the floor of the shop how pathetic hey. At least its done now:)