Work it like you might be going on vacation sometime in the next ten years!
It's that time of decade again, when I have to renew my passport. I didn't get it done in time to avoid the dumb RFID tag which generally broadcasts all your personal data (encrypted, but still). Thank you, State Department, for your well thought out foray into gadgetry. A smarter chip would simply key the chip to the passport contents, but we can't have that.
Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, except wrap it in tinfoil. I should probably get a hat to match.
The main thing, at this point, is to keep my passport current, in case I have to flee the country. Not likely I'll need to, but if we do go on vacation abroad, at least passport renewal won't be an issue.
All concerns about identity theft aside, the real problem with getting a passport is the photo.
In my first passport photo, shot in one of those booths, I looked like a toad. A toad with a pretty blue scarf, but a toad nonetheless. In my second and present passport photo, shot by a person at a photo developer, I look like someone else. Someone with a double chin. I don't have one, so I'm not sure how it got into the picture! The photos in both passports are so washed out that you can barely make out my face.
This time, I decided, will be different. If I do it myself, I should be able to get a good passport photo. I looked at the State Department guidelines and decided, based on their explanation of digital photography, that I was more than capable of providing a proper picture. Actually, their long list of what they won't accept has me wondering what people have tried to submit. Magazine clippings? Pictures of themselves in Halloween costumes?
Today I started Operation Non-sucky Passport Photo. I was having a really good hair day. Really, why couldn't my hair have been this cute for the Princess's wedding? Instead, it lay down flat and said, "Wah! Wake me up when the humidity breaks 30%."
Anyway, good hair, free time, camera, tripod, plain white drape. I'm set. I shot a bunch. I got one I thought was okay, but Oz wasn't thrilled with it.
I said, "Why? I have a nice neutral expression on my face."
He said, "If that's neutral, I don't want to see you looking mean."
"I don't look mean!" Although I probably do look mean when I go through passport control, so a mean picture might work better. Besides, Oz looks like a convict (like, you give him cigarettes so he won't beat you up) in the photo on his work ID.
He looked again. "Well, okay, I guess there is a hint of a smile there."
The more I looked at the photograph as a photograph, I began to think that I could do better. The cloth I used as a drape for the plain white background was kind of wrinkled. I've got a wall I could use instead if I took a bulletin board down. The lighting was nothing much. I got to thinking about the article on chiaroscuro (via) this morning. I could rearrange the lights a little …
Oz suggested we go shopping for speedlights. "And those silver umbrellas."
"No!" I'll see what I can do with the lighting I have.
I hope tomorrow is a good hair day.
586 words | February 22, 2007 10:26 PM | Shutterbug