infant passport photos

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have experience getting infant (specifically newborn) passport photos in the area?

(I've had problems with adult passport photos at CVS, otherwise I'd just go there... on the other hand, I had a good experience getting passport photos at that camera store in Davis Square, but I think that's now a hair salon, so that's out, obviously...)

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Errico photography did a great job with my daughter's passport photo at 3 months.

(edited to fix my stupid mistake)

[valadil.livejournal.com]

The Medford post office handled ours.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

They do the photos?

[zenala.livejournal.com]

That's the one a few doors from Diesel, right?

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I got one for Xander at the Walgreen's in Central Square. It was sufficient.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it.

[faerichilde.livejournal.com]

We just took our own photo and printed it out. If you don't have a photo printer, you should be able to print a 2x2 photo somewhere like CVS.

Seems a little silly

[squirrelitude]

I'm kind of amused at the notion of having to get a passport photo for an infant since 1) I generally can't tell babies apart in the first place, and 2) they'll soon look nothing like it anyway!

ETA: Anyway, yes -- you can send in your own photo, as long as it meets the guidelines.

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

We did our daughter's there too at a similar age, and will go back soon for our son's and for their Canadian passport photos, but the photographer was clearly not quite sure what to do with a baby. He did a fine job, though!

[xuth.livejournal.com]

The standards for taking a passport photo are remarkably simple to manage now that virtually everyone has a digital camera at their disposal.

http://travel.state.gov/passport/pptphotoreq/pptphotoreq_5333.html for the full rules but reading the quick composition template http://travel.state.gov/passport/pptphotoreq/photocomptemplate/photocomptemplate_5297.html is covers things fairly well also.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Harder with a baby, in my experience - at least, not without one parent to hold the baby like a puppet with a solid white wall/board/etc behind them. (If you lie a baby who can't sit up down against a white sheet or white posterboard, you get flash shadows that are not acceptable by the passport guidelines.)

We had both of our infant passport photos done at Cameras inc, which is obviously not an option anymore, but I got my own passport photo done at Errico, upstairs right near Diesel, and will get any future passport photos for our family done there - price, location, and a business I'd like to see remain operational.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Most (all?) post offices that accept passport applications can take the photos. They probably charge more for it than CVS/Walgreens/etc., but it's convenient. The woman at the Cambridge post office was really good with my kids and even managed to produce photos that actually look like them.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

True, it may seem a bit silly, but new rules require everyone traveling internationally to have a passport. It used to be (as recently as 2003, when I traveled with my then-newborn son) that a baby didn't need one, but now they're required regardless of age.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Cvs photo printers have an Id option that lets you select the top and bottom of the head so it prints out in the correct format

[ifotismeni]

huh... this is a new thing? my brother and i both had infant passports back in the 70s and 80s. now i wonder why...

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

It may have to do with where you travel? I took my son to Canada and back without a passport and it was fine. There may be more strict rules with other countries. There was a lot of talk about instances of non-custodial parents kidnapping kids and bringing them to Canada, so it was important to be able to prove that I was the sole custodial parent, but the birth certificate was sufficient for that purpose at that time.

When I was getting passports for my kids last spring, I observed that googling gets you lots of pages that say things like "You may have heard that your kid doesn't need a passport but that isn't true any more" or similar. Combined with the fact that I didn't hear anything about needing a passport when I traveled with baby, I deduce that something changed between 2003 and 2012...I could be wrong, of course!

[ifotismeni]

ah, that would make sense. maybe it has something to do with the whole "you need a passport to go to canada now" thing.

[faerichilde.livejournal.com]

We just lied our baby on a white sheet and it was fine.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Make sure to check out the incredibly creepy historical mural high up on the wall when you're there.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Infant passports do expire faster.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting. And the Medford post office is just a few blocks from my house...

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Definitely familiar with the mural--I live a few blocks away so it's my go-to post office.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

I remember my childhood passports lasted 5 years, though I didn't get my first one til I was 6. The weirdest was traveling with my 11-year-old passport when I was 15... [edit: the passport from when I was 11 years old]

[wobblymusic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if he's a newborn, he won't be wiggling much. To get the required forward-facing photo, we put him in his carseat with a white sheet behind him. Then, just be extra-safe, I used photoshop to get rid of the background shadows.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I was scrolling through the community and saw this post...probably too late but whatever :) I had a great experience at the Arlington Center post office, they took my 1 month old sons photos and made the process easy even though it was super awkward at that age lol.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

They do expire faster however they are valid for 5 years. My now 22 month old looks NOTHING like his 1 month old photo used in his passport. Craziness.