Unacceptable baby passport photos are the number one reason baby passport applications are rejected, says Yokosuka Naval Hospital. Fret not—following these easy steps will get you as close as you can come to a passably acceptable photo.
Step one: Acquire a baby and dress him/her in the appropriate travel outfit of your choice. We recommend: airplane footie pajamas (kawaiiiiiiiii!!).
Step two: Find a photo booth. If you go looking for the one that used to be in the food court, someone moved it to the awful no man’s land between the automatic sliding doors. Annoying.
Step two: Find a photo booth. If you go looking for the one that used to be in the food court, someone moved it to the awful no man’s land between the automatic sliding doors. Annoying.
Step three: Drape yourself head-to-toe in a white sheet. Look natural. If any part of you appears in the photo, REJECT! If anyone asks what the heck you’re doing, wave your arms and make ghost noises. Their fault for asking.
Step four: Insert your 600 yen, select the ‘passport photo’ option on the touch screen, and prop up your selected baby. Try to distract or bounce said baby while the automated voice counts down from three and shoots a photo. Your goal: eyes open, head straight and aligned with the visual cues. From under a sheet?! Try again.
Step four: Insert your 600 yen, select the ‘passport photo’ option on the touch screen, and prop up your selected baby. Try to distract or bounce said baby while the automated voice counts down from three and shoots a photo. Your goal: eyes open, head straight and aligned with the visual cues. From under a sheet?! Try again.
Step five: Be annoyed that you get only two tries per 600 yen before your session times out and prints whichever ridiculous photos were last onscreen. Deposit another 600 yen. (Repeat steps four and five as needed. Also: wish the “touch the button you like” feature worked in real life: Hmm, screaming baby or sleeping baby…decisions, decisions….) 
Step six: Resort to a different pose—perhaps sheet-over-arms-holding-baby-head-upright. If photo is head-on and baby’s eyes are open, proceed to centering the face onscreen as directed. Be sure to crop out any adult ears/noses/etc that may have sneaked into baby’s passport photo to avoid possible REJECT!
Step six: Resort to a different pose—perhaps sheet-over-arms-holding-baby-head-upright. If photo is head-on and baby’s eyes are open, proceed to centering the face onscreen as directed. Be sure to crop out any adult ears/noses/etc that may have sneaked into baby’s passport photo to avoid possible REJECT! Step seven: “Please wait outside for awhile.” Maybe that’s why they moved the photo booth to the exit…? 
Step eight: Review your many and varied passport photos. Try not to think about how much yen you just spent on ridiculous baby pictures. Hopefully you’ve had some success. If any of the photos are more or less upright, eyes open, and do not have floating adult body parts in them, congratulations! Add the picture to the stack of paperwork you’re taking to the US Embassy next week!
Step eight: Review your many and varied passport photos. Try not to think about how much yen you just spent on ridiculous baby pictures. Hopefully you’ve had some success. If any of the photos are more or less upright, eyes open, and do not have floating adult body parts in them, congratulations! Add the picture to the stack of paperwork you’re taking to the US Embassy next week! 
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LOL, love it! Actually a very genius idea with the sheet– no surprise coming from you. Looks like you got a good shot in there, so good job!
I hope you made some good "Woooooing" noises during that session! Very clever and funny to boot! Thanks for sharing!
Ha, ha! So funny! I held Sophia up while Phil held a white poster in front of my face. The lady at Walgreens was so patient!
Loved this post, so funny 🙂 and he is adorable, congrats!!!
oh, oh! I need to go get Bronson and my passports too! We only have our no-fee passports.
Loved this post. Yes, travel abroad can put you in some strange circumstances. Our current washer/dryer in Paris eats a percentage of the buttons from my dress shirts every time we try to wash them in it. Quote from a State-side friend, "Who cares; you're living in Paris!" Yes, living in Paris has lots of upside, but even living in Paris it is awkward and socially unacceptable to go out in shirts that are unwashed or that have all of the buttons ripped off.
I think the upper right picture looks more, passport like. Too bad Japan doesn't have a CVS, where they keep taking the picture until you have an acceptable one for the same price, no matter how many pictures are taken.
Also look at how many comments you get when posting about your baby!
I just choked on a meatball laughing at this!
HAHA!!! you crack me up. Jamie and I decided to just do it at home (knowing that it was going to cost a small fortune AND be impossible to do with a NEWBORN in a photo booth). haha. You got a good one tho. VERY impressed! too funny. you should look on my FB to see the 2 times (once for emergency passport and once for real passport) that we had to do it. we went through about 15 shots each time. lol.