The Mission: Take A Passport Photo Of A 2 Year Old

I've been wanting to post up these photos for a few weeks time, but I've been reluctant to because I didn't want to jinx myself if the passport photo got rejected. We are heading off to San Diego in May for almost 2 weeks, so we had to organise a passport for Beth... which of course involves having to take a passport photo. And that was probably my hardest gig to date! The criteria for passport photos is virtually impossible when it comes to trying to take a photo of a 2 year old toddler who can't/won't sit still or listen to instructions.

The quick rundown - passport photos have to be a front-on photo of a person, eyes open, with no open mouth, no teeth showing, no smiling, no hair in eyes, neutral expression. For complete guidelines, check out this link - Australian Passport Photo Requirements... this is what we were going by

So these are the results of what happened... I had Phan assisting me in trying to get Beth to sit still and look at the camera. 20 minutes passed by and some 50 photos later, I get one good shot (the enlarged photo in the corner), which almost got rejected by the person going through the paperwork at the Australia Post branch, because "her face is slightly tilted down"... Are you kidding me? Did these people not realise how hard it was to get this one photo? I was ready to have a breakdown if they rejected the photo! (Thus my reluctance to post these photos until now). Fortunately, it all went through the passport processing office with no issues and I picked it up today, so I can now laugh at the experience in hindsight... She was laughing and being so cheeky during the whole shoot... and to get her to keep her mouth shut we had to bribe/give her Natural Confectionery Company snakes... which is why it looks like she's eating in some of the photos... LOL... The photo that we used the enlarged photo... and doesn't she look like the happiest of campers in that photo? LOL... If looks could kill, that would be Beth's killer stare... :p She's stuck with the photo now in her passport for the next 5 years.