passports for babies!!! photo hell.

[lucykatie]

right, i need a passport for my dd2 who is 7 months old, been to fetch documents and tried my blo@*#y hardest to get a passport photo.

its got to be of her face, so the colour of her eyes can be seen, noone else in photo,cannot stand behind and hold as that means your in the photo, no hands of others to be showing....oh and they are to look straight ahead and have the mouth closed....

go on then tell me how?????

if you go to an autual photo shop development shop they do them - they put them on a high stool and you crouch below and hold them.

Take her to a chemist/other palce with a hand held passport photo camera - they'll lie the baby on a towel or something and take the picture lying down. Some places (like Snappy Snaps) charge you one fee and will take as many photos as necessary to get it right.

Lay her on a white sheet and take the photo from above. With the digital camera booths in photo places you can print out passport size photos. Means you can have lots of attempts.

It is all madness anyway. DD was 2 days old on her passport photo. Taken at the hospital! She is 3 now and is not recognisable as that baby at all. We could be taking any child out of the country.

oh ok, never really thought of photo shops as such, but will give it a go.

what a nightmare.

thanks for your help though.

Yes do give photo shops a go - it worked for me

hulababy, yes i know what you mean, my dd1 is nearly 6 and her passport photo is when she was 2, she had no hair and looks nothing like her.

snappy snaps did ours - lay dd1 on a bean bag to do hers - think she was baout 5 months old or may have even been younger. Very reasonable price.

Message withdrawn

We're going to a proper photo place, £5 for 2 good photos which I think is worth it. We did get good shots going to a chemist last time, so I would go that route if there was one near where I live.

Hulababy - have been wondering about how quickly we will be able to get a baby passport. We want to head off to France asap after the baby arrives.

Assume from your post that you were in a bit of a hurry too - how long did it take from getting the form sent off?

Also, did you manage to get a picture of your baby with his/her eyes open at only 2 days - I read that on the passport agency website and thought it would be a real struggle?

Thanks

Another way to do this is to put baby in the first size car seat covered with a white cloth and use the head hugger bit to to keep head still and in one place - think would probably work better with smaller babies though - again helps to have digital camara so can alter size etc once done.

We got a lovely one of our ds (6 mths then). [smug emotion]. We got it done in a booth in Boots. It was one of those booths that you can 'reject' a photo and have it done again. I had to hold ds inside the booth and my arms were shaking from his weight! Having said that, it wasnt as difficult as i thought it would be as the 'voice' in the booth counts down until the picture is taken and this made ds look in the right direction.

If you send your passport form off through the post office they aim to get it back to you within 2 weeks. Ours took about 1 week, but will probably take longer the closer you get to peak holidaying time.

HTH

Dd had her photo done at Jessopps camera shop on a bean bag - she took a few but only charged me for one. Dd was about 3 weeks. I took the form up to Victoria on a Friday and got it back about the following Wednesday but that was in February. Now 15 months she looks nothing like her picture already!

I order myself a re-newed passport recently, and it came back within a week and half. Didn't use the post office service, just the standard postal one. Was amazed at how quick it came back!

That was in the last month.

did it....got the photodone for my dd2.......

thanks everyonr for your help.

got to complete passport document now!!!!!

sorry about my typing errors.....so excited.

Re passport applications - you can submit them online - they can then obviously ensure that all boxes are filled correctly - they then send you the completed form to sign and get counter signatory stuff if applicable. I think it's really good - I got the form back about 2 days after I submitted it and the passport itself about a week or so after I posted the signed form.

I took ds to a photo booth for his when he was about 6 months and held him up. My arms are in the photo and they never said anything about it.

ive gotta sort out my 7 months old baba too... not looking forward to it as she vvveeeerrryyyyy nosey!!!

We've had some pretty bad looking passport photos (starting at about 10 days old for one of our children).

One memorable one was when the pharmacist gave me his white coat to wear back to front, so that I could hold DD (then about one month old) and prop her head up, with my own head out of the picture.

We've always had our photos accepted, even the American ones which are extremely picky.

well, i ended up taking my dd to a photo shop....jessops.

they put a white sheet type thing on the floor and i laid dd on it.
as the camera woman stood over dd she looked straight at her...photos are pretty good.