Monday, we went to the U.S. Consulate in Melbourne. All three of us had to be there. We submitted paperwork for Paul’s Consular Report of Birth Abroad, passport, and Social Security number.

It was a fairly straight forward day. The paperwork was long but understandable (mostly), the drive took 45 minutes (including circling the block looking for parking), and time in the government offices was miraculously less than an hour (it was the day before a public holiday!).

What did take a long time was getting Paul’s passport photo the week before. Here are the required dimensions:

Here are some “helpful” requirements (courtesy the Department of State website).

7 Steps to Successful Photos

• Photograph subject against a plain white or off-white background.

If you went to a photo shop for a passport photo, you would be put in front of a plain white screen. But for Paul, of course, there could be no arms or hands or anything to prop him up, so that wouldn’t work for us. Instead, we used white blankets over pillows to try to prop up the little guy. I don’t think passport photos are intended for infants who can’t hold up their own heads!

• Position subject and lighting so that there are no distracting shadows on the face or background.

This is very hard to do without professional lighting. I admit, some of the shadows from the background had to be eliminated in the end.

• Encourage subject to have a natural expression.

OK, Paul, look natural! (Should this include spit up?)

• Frame subject with full face, front view, eyes open.

Have you ever tried to get an infant, who is awake and has his eyes open, to stay still? It doesn’t happen. Paul wanted to wriggle around. He certainly didn’t want to face forward and pose.

• Center head within frame.

Paul kept squirming, so his head kept flopping out of the center of the frame. He really likes to have his hand by his face, too. Thank goodness for cropping!

• Make sure photo presents full head from top of hair to bottom of chin; height of head should measure 1 inch to 1-3/8 inches (25 mm to 35 mm).

Babies faces are quite round, so I think this requirement makes the head huge in comparison to the rest of the frame.

• Make sure eye height is between 1-1/8 inches to 1-3/8 inches (28 mm and 35 mm) from bottom of photo.

So exact!

In all, I think I took 100 pictures before we found one that we could fix up to meet the requirements. Here are the attempts and the final product.

Passport Photos

The attempts and the final product.