Taking Passport Photos

When Sean had to travel overseas for work earlier this year, we toyed with the idea of taking it as a chance to go on a family vacation, even though Blake and I will be mostly on our own – it is after all, a work trip for Sean. We didn’t make it in the end cos my passport expired, and Blake didn’t have one. He didn’t even have a photo for his passport. Haha.

During this period of separation, I took it upon myself to be better prepared for similar situations in future. I want to be able to up and go with my boy whenever the hubs needed to travel for work, which isn’t very frequent actually. Haha!

The first baby steps towards that? To take a passport size photo, of cos!

I contemplated bringing him to a professional to get it done, but why should I? I have been taking passport size photos for Sean and myself since we were together. No point paying that kind of money to have flash in my boy’s eyes at such a young age too, right?

So I set up our DIY mini studio on Blake’s new bed, complete with awesome lighting Sean installed to the bed! No photos of that though, cos Blake kept disturbing me. Haha. He was actually getting ready to have his bath. Hence, clad only in his diapers. But in the spur of the moment, I decided to take passport size photos there and then. Haha. He wouldn’t stop rolling around the bed, and playing with his toys. He was getting rather impatient cos he loves his bath time!

Once everything was in place, I sat Blake in front of the white backdrop, which was made up of two sheets of mahjong paper (so not professional at all!). Had to use two sheets cos of the super green wall. Hehe.

When Blake finally sat still in front of the backdrop for a long enough time for me to snap a photo, he just wouldn’t look at the camera! He kept looking at his toys. Haha. So I decided to bribe him into looking at the camera. Well, at least in the direction of it.

I took my mobile phone, played a video, and like magic, Blake’s eyes focused straight onto the video. Then came the trial and error part; where to best place the video so that Blake will look like he’s looking straight into the camera.

I tried to the side of the camera, on top of the camera and below the camera. Here are some of the shots taken:

I know, super cute, right? Hehe.

Must be something in the video that’s making him laugh. Haha.

Honestly, after taking these photos, I was majorly happy with one of them. Here it is, after I’ve edited it to the required passport photo size:

After my very proud moment of achieving this feat, I uploaded the photos onto my Facebook. Then a friend of mine asked, “Why isn’t Blake wearing any t-shirt?”

At first I thought, must he wear a t-shirt? He’s just a baby/toddler after all. Then I went around asking and it seems like, he does have to. Sigh. So, although I did get a good shot, Blake was considered “naked”. I had to re-do this whole passport photo-taking thing. And, it took me a couple of days to finally get around to doing it again.

This time round, we took the photos in the living room, on our sofa. Blake was sitting very still, smiling from time to time during his afternoon TV time. Perfect timing, right? So, without disturbing his TV time much, I put up the white backdrop behind him. Once everything was up, I grabbed my camera and placed myself in front of him to snap away!

I was obviously blocking his view of the television, but he obliged for as long as he could. Here are some of the better shots that I like:

By about this point, where I must’ve taken tons of shots already, Blake was getting a little annoyed with me – I was blocking his view, after all – and he tried to move so that he can continue watching his cartoon. Haha. I had to hold him down.

Holding him down was a little ticklish for him. Haha.

“I give up! I surrender! Take all you want!” 😛

Still kind of unsure whether any of the shots I took was passable, I emailed a couple of the shots to my aunt, who works at the S.I.R. building, and she checked with her colleagues if the photos (after I edited them) met the requirements for making a passport.

And we have a winner!!!

And just for fun, I bought photo paper and printed out a couple of these “passport photos” of Blake. Hehe.

I even went as far as buying a passport photo puncher, so that I don’t have to use pen knife ruler to cut out the photos. Haha. Also, with the passport photo puncher, I won’t go wrong with the size! Hehe.

This whole experience was pretty exciting for me actually. Haha. And I can say, for sure now, that I don’t need to go anywhere to pay $8-$10 to get instant shots taken at photo shops. I can do it all at home! I can even edit the photos until I’m satisfied. Haha!

Oh ya, I still haven’t had my passport renewed or Blake’s passport done. Talk about procrastinating! Haha!