“Ok buddy, arms at your sides,” I said, gently pressing his hands into his lap. The photos kind of looked like a drunk guy’s mugshot. The kid’s hands were in the air and his mouth was agape. He couldn’t even wipe his own bottom, but he could get a passport? I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just travel under mine.Įventually, the clerk decided to download the photos onto the computer to see if we had any keepers. The whole idea of my one-year-old getting his very own official passport seemed a little crazy. Would the photo be rejected if he had chipmunk cheeks? I didn’t mention that his cheek was bulging out abnormally due to the mushy wad of cheese puffs. In between handing my son cheese puffs, the clerk snapped away, hoping to catch the kid with his mouth shut and his hands down. “If they’re in the photo the passport people reject it?” “His hands can’t be in the photo either,” said the clerk. He munched contentedly on the puff I’d given him and promptly stuck out his hand for more as if to say, “keep ‘em coming mom.” The kid looked like he was sitting in one of those big film director’s chairs. I held my breath and backed out of the frame. “If they’re in the photo, the passport people reject it.” “Your hands can’t be in the photo,” the clerk said. I buckled the kid in, gave him a cheese puff, and hovered nearby, slightly distrustful of the contraption my son was sitting in. Bingo.īack at the photo studio, the clerk had fastened a plastic child seat onto the swivel chair used for taking the passport photos. We found some baby cheese puffs that were bite-sized and appeared to be comprised mostly of air. Off we went to find something tasty that wasn’t sticky, drippy or otherwise messy, and that, ideally, would melt in the kid’s closed mouth. “Looks like we get to buy you a very special treat today,” I told the kid. I had visions of my son playing banana phone or waving the peel around like a maniac. And it seemed that both my photography friend and this clerk shared an industry secret: bribery with snacks is your best chance at a decent photo.īut the banana seemed like a terrible prop for a passport photo. I could hardly get my son to look in the direction of a camera on command, much less sit still.Ī photographer friend once told me that babies are way harder subjects than pets. I got the sense that baby passport photos were not the clerk’s favourite activity.
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