In the post 9/11 world, security measures have been tightened. One of the issues affected was passports. As of January 1st, issuing passports has been turned over to police departments. They now cost 52 euros apiece and have the photo of the passport holder scanned and printed on the booklet rather than put in place with cling film. Ah, the photo. There's the rub. The photo has to be 4x6 cm, the chin to forehead area must cover 50-60% of the photo, the expression must be completely neutral, the applicant must stare straight ahead, the ears must be completely uncovered by locks of hair and the such, no makeup, no nothing. All this to make it possible to police forces around the world to identify the applicant using biometric measurements from the photo. Also known as a mugshot. I personally know people who had their photos taken three and four times before they got accepted by the Central Passport Bureau and one of them had to have her photo taken twice more because she is young, she has oily skin and the tip of the nose she could not use face powder on was a bit shiny. So, when the time came for me to start the process to get my old passport replaced (it was due to expire yesterday), I carefully prepped myself, went to the photographer's and got my photo taken. "You cannot be serious!" my mum said, when she saw the end result. "Mum, that's what the police want me to look like!" "This isn't you! Go get another photo taken!" "I don't want to shell out 7 euros more just to have another photo taken, in which I would still look awful! I can't smile, I can't let my hair down, there is no way I will still look like me!" Mum was right though. I don't look anything like my passport photo. I have a cheery disposition and unruly long curly hair, whereas the person in the photo could very well be an adult Wednesday Adams. I really didn't want to go through the whole prepping thing again (that is, spend another half hour to get all of my hair out of my face), so I submitted the first photo as it was. After all, from what I knew, I had a 25-33% chance of getting the photo accepted and, when you get right down to it, they are valid for five years only and in the meantime technology in identifying may have advanced enough to allow people to look like themselves, not like they have just been told they need a colonoscopy for that broken toe of theirs. Last Wednesday I went to the police station to see if I could pick my passport up. The officer looked in the "inbox", found it and gave it to me. "Here, your application was accepted", he said. "Of course it would get accepted, I look awful in the photo". *takes a look* "Yep, this is one awful photo. Please sign this receipt here and you're done". Mum freaked when I got home but, eventually, she consoled herself with the thought that I would get a new photo in five years time, which in the greater scheme of things is no time at all. Later that evening my dad came home. "Turn on the news!" he said, "the Americans killed Zarqawi today!" "Oh my God! is it true?" asked mum. "Yes, it's him, they have a positive ID" "How?" "From his passport photo", I interceded. Much hilarity ensued.
Im of to the USA in a week and i got my pasport isued in 2003 and i look totaly difrent in my photo to how i do now i have longer hair for a start and i ware more make-up. i just have to keep it for another 2 years then i have to get an IDcard as well what is the point its going to take them ages to do ID cards as well as passports what is the point pasports only got invented because of World war 1 and people wanted to travel more now its just got too big. i just hope i dont get stoped at imagration when i go across because i have a conecting flight i love america but i hate travaling there and im travaling by my self this time. thats my rant about passports but my draving licence photo is worse and that lasts to 2015 and i cant get it changed only if i get marred and my sirname changes (i look like mortisha from the adams fimaly in my dravers licence i had just recoverd from a chest infection)
Well, think yourself lucky you change it at all... over here driving licences don't need renewing (anyone who has ever driven in France will be going "oh, ok, I get it now...") and people who are 70 now still have their 18-year-old photo, how dumb can you get ? On the subject of bad pics, I got stuck with a ridiculous picture on my foreign resident's card, because I took them in the photo booth outside the place where they issue them. no extra change, no time, and my dear husband (at that time boyfriend) made me giggle, so I look like I'm constipated because I'm trying not to laugh out loud. The card is valid until 2008, good job they abolished them and I can show my passport instead !
I have never had a good picture of me, but all of my ID pictures have been painful to look upon. My passport didn't look as horrible as my last driver's license picture. I had been awake all night after work, had some grease still on my face, hadn't shaved in several days, and my hair looked like Kramer's after sleeping in a dryer. When my sister saw it she said, "Ugh," but when my brother looked at it has said, "Damn!" and fell out laughing. I really don't like having my picture taken.
[quote:be108b0049="Garner"]Who's Zarqawi?[/quote:be108b0049] The late Mr. Zarqawi(sp?) was an perticularly brutal insurgent leader in Iraq.
Wherever you are, no matter how well dressed/made-up/hairdressed you are, the ID photo booth will always, ALWAYS make you look lousy. There is one particular brand that gives you blue 80's-style eyeshadow regardless of gender, and makes you look like an unfashionable non-gothic vampire. I'm surprised this worldwide phenomenon hasn't yet been speared by our belovèd Pterry actually. Identification iconographs have evil gnomes inside them !!!
[quote:e98d21a13e="QuothTheRaven"][quote:e98d21a13e="Garner"]Who's Zarqawi?[/quote:e98d21a13e] The late Mr. Zarqawi(sp?) was an perticularly brutal insurgent leader in Iraq.[/quote:e98d21a13e] To elabourate further, Zarqawi was the Al-Quada leader in Iraq. He's responsible for thousands of deaths, the vast majority being civilians. Shi'ite civilians, to be specific. His main field of operations was Iraq, while a secondary one was Jordan. He was the No.1 Most Wanted in both countries. To put it bluntly, one of the nastiest people on the planet. Now, as for passport, ID pics etc, I shudder every time I have to look at my ID. I was young and even geekier than I am now back then, and I look... lame. Very lame.
[quote:93c74aede2="Roman_K"][quote:93c74aede2="QuothTheRaven"][quote:93c74aede2="Garner"]Who's Zarqawi?[/quote:93c74aede2] The late Mr. Zarqawi(sp?) was an perticularly brutal insurgent leader in Iraq.[/quote:93c74aede2] To elabourate further, Zarqawi was the Al-Quada leader in Iraq. He's responsible for thousands of deaths, the vast majority being civilians. Shi'ite civilians, to be specific. His main field of operations was Iraq, while a secondary one was Jordan. He was the No.1 Most Wanted in both countries. To put it bluntly, one of the nastiest people on the planet. Now, as for passport, ID pics etc, I shudder every time I have to look at my ID. I was young and even geekier than I am now back then, and I look... lame. Very lame.[/quote:93c74aede2] Wasn't he also the chap who was glorifed earlier by America because he was fighting the Russians in Afghanistan?
[quote:7b6a1c4303="Katcal"]You mean your avatar isn't your passport ID ? I am deeply dissapointed.[/quote:7b6a1c4303] Heh. Sams, according to Wikipedia, Zarqawi went to Afganistan too late to actually fight the Soviets, but that he probably met Bin-Laden there. It was Bin-Laden that the US supported while he was in Afganistan, if I'm not mistaken.
The best thing about passports and ID cards is the amusement factor! If it weren't for them, the 'Happy Retard' might not exist.
my worst ID photo has to be from indonesian immigration... it was within my first week or so of arriving and i was pulled out of school because it was the only time they were open. On arrival (after a 2 hour car journey) we were left for a few more hours for an agent in a non air-conditioned building which was increadibly busy. We were lead upstairs to another busy room where my hand was grabbed and fingerprinted before i was lead to a little shack outside to take a photo in an extremely dubious looking (but somehow official) hut. Sufficive to say I look rather nervous in it...not to mention hot and sweaty and jet lagged.
I generally look ok in my ID photos- not great, but it looks like me so I can deal. What I LOVE about passport regulations is that apparently the pictures now must be in black and white? My Irish passport is only a few years old but is harder to identify as me than the american one I've had since middle school.
Well my passport photo is probably 3 or 4 years old now. I had short hair then, look rather... startled and i had a few less spots back then :? nowadays I have quite long hair, more spots and have been mistaken for a university student on a couple of occasions. wile my current passport photo looks bad, I'm not sure if i want to have another one done due to all my spots damn hormones.
I've had some absolute shockers. They nearly didn't accept my passport photo cos they said it was overexposed. My response was 'no thats just how I look'... to give you some idea: me with my blonde hair and pasty pale skin was wearing a white shirt on a white background. No wonder I look quite hard to see. However, the worst photos of me of all time are my school photos I do not have one good one of all the years they took those things. Unfortunately I had a tendency to open my eyes really wide makiing me look ridiculous and surprised. kind of like a combination of these :shock:
Hmm, by strange contrast I quite like my old passport mug shot... will have to attach it to my profile at some point. Never used to like photo's of myself but I seem to of gotten vainer since leaving university and at least one person agree's because I met my present girlfriend on yahoo dating after a friend recommended it after my last relationship came to a jarring end. She replied to me on the strength of that picture which she said looked like Daniel Jackson from Stargate, turned out we lived about 15 minute drive from each other, that was two years ago now and we're still going strong
Ah, now the big question is, did she mean Daniel Jackson in the movie or in the SG1 series... Definately [b:1c38a16349]not [/b:1c38a16349]the same compliment depending on that detail...
Texted her to check, as my memories got more holes in it than a tennis racket(sp?), and she says the film version. I am, I confess, a fluffy haired, bespectacled geek and rather proud of it!
[quote:8e69b5a655="Watchman"]Texted her to check, as my memories got more holes in it than a tennis racket(sp?), and she says the film version. I am, I confess, a fluffy haired, bespectacled geek and rather proud of it![/quote:8e69b5a655] Yep, that's it But hey, I actually preferred James Spader, the character was a lot more interesting in the film, more contrast with the harsh military side of it, in SG1 he just blends into the background and gets his know-it-all role pinched by Carter (although from what I have heard, a lot of guys would like to get pinched by Carter... ) So, it was a compliment after all
Heh, thanks. Either way I'd of taken it as compliment though but James Spader is by far the more realistic option I personally cant see the resemblance myself though, but whenever my ego is troubled by the more glamorous macho types I remember being voted second hottest guy at college out of the 70 odd in my year and take some relief that fluffy-haired, lanky and geeky has a certain appeal!
I'm in my young teens, and flatter myself that I look a LOT better now than i did two years ago. . . I am almost completely unrecognisable. . . I was wearing no make-up, a normal brown suede-like coat, my eyes appear brown and had my hair tied back . . . I now wear a LOT of black make-up most days, my hair over my face, my eyes normally appear greenish due to purple eyeliner and i wear black clothes a LOT of the time . . . It really is very hard to recognise me, the nearly epitomy of teen goth, from the picture of litttle Ms. Innocent! It makes me laugh quite hard!
I kind of like my drivers license picture. Except for the fact that the golden imprint of Michigan, that I assume is supposed to be a way to thwart fake ID's, is right over my face. Yeah the Kewenaw Peninsula is pointed up my nose.
