Our new passports are here!
Our new passports are here!
The Cracker Family will be going on a cruise this February thanks to the generosity of Poppa Cracker. Last year he took our family and my brother-in-law's family to Disney World for a week. It was a complete blast and one of the best vacations I have ever been on. This year Poppa C will be taking all of us (11 total) on a Disney Cruise. The entire family is practically vibrating with excitement.
The one catch to going on a cruise, is that we needed to obtain passports for the entire Cracker clan. The trickiest part to this (at least for us) turned out to be obtaining the passport photos. After successfully managing to put off the photography for several weeks, we decided we needed to get our act together & get the process rolling before we were too late to get them. Unfortunately, we decided to do this after church one Sunday, when (as you could probably have guessed) all of the photography shops & studios were closed.
After pulling up to a couple of closed stores, we decided to hit a discount drug store on the way home to see if they could take our pictures. After a quick verification made by Mr. Crackers, we all piled out of the van & into the store.
I should probably point out that this store is no ordinary CVS or Wal-Greens. This particular drug store has a bit of everything including groceries & videos to rent. It is a veritable potpourri of various discounted & off-brand products. I am still unsure why we decided to go to this store rather than wait 2 more hours for the other places to open, but we were inside and there was a very nice woman who seemed eager to help us out.
It's good that she was both so eager & so nice, for that helped to make up for her total lack of knowledge about photography and passport photos. Our first clue that we had probably come to the wrong place should have been when she first pulled out the camera she was going to use. It was an antique...
OK, so it wasn't quite that old, but it was a 2 mega pixel camera from a manufacturer I had never heard of. I was able to study it so closely during the 5 minutes or so it took her to realize that the reason her camera wasn't working was because it had no batteries in it. That should have probably been our second clue....(did I mention how nice she was?).
Once the batteries were finally in the camera, it was time for her to start taking pictures, so she pulled down the white shade to hide the discounted tobacco products from view and asked my husband to smile (we later learned you really shouldn't be smiling in passport photos).
Now came our final clue that we had (perhaps) chosen our photography venue poorly... In order to take the picture she placed her left hand over her left eye while holding the camera up to her right eye (I guess she never learned how to wink). Then slowly as she swayed back and forth on the balls of her feet she began taking photos. I really wish I had video of this process, it was (while not conducive to taking good passport photos) entertaining to say the least.
She repeated the strange swaying, hand up to the eye process for all 4 of us and then informed us we could pick up the pictures the next day. She also informed us that she would gladly retake any pictures that didn't turn out, free of charge. Needless to say, both Mr. Crackers and I were looking forward to seeing the pictures with a combination of curiosity and dread.
When I picked up the pictures the next day, I was pleasantly surprised that 1 of us actually got something that could be submitted to the State Department. However, the other 3 of us would clearly have to sit for re-shoots. My picture was so blurry & I was smiling so hard (almost laughing really - I'm telling you again she was really entertaining to watch) that mine would definitely have to be retaken. The kids' pictures were no better. K's head was tiny & her head was so low that the woman nearly cut off her entire chin. C had a similarly tiny head and his was also way out of focus.
Since I had come alone, I went ahead & had my photo re-done and got to once again witness her in all of her comedic swaying-picture-taking glory. I told her that Mr. Crackers picture looked fine and that I'd return later to check out the latest version of my photo and would probably bring the kids to have their pictures redone at that time. She was very nice & told me to come back anytime and that she would keep taking pictures of us until she had it right. I was starting to think that we perhaps hadn't left enough time to get our passports after all.
I returned a third time to the store (without the tiny headed Cracker children) to see how my second picture turned out. I figured there was no reason to get the kids involved until I knew we could get at least one more good picture out of her. To her credit, it was slightly improved over her first picture, but still kind of blurry - probably from all of the swaying. At this point I decided it was time to cut my losses & find another place to take the pictures. I mean, I am a sucker, but even I have my limits. So I paid for the pictures (yes, even the tiny headed ones of my kids. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Did I mention how nice she was? Have I mentioned my fear of conflict and my tendency to be a complete sucker? Sorry Mr. Crackers you married a complete and total marshmallow - of course you probably already know this.) and the next day I took the kids to have their pictures taken in the place that had been closed the previous Sunday.
Wow! What a difference - they had a special camera just for taking passport photos. It was awesome and best of all the pictures were clear and in complete focus. My kids had normal sized heads and K even had a chin! The only downside was that the woman who took our pictures lacked the pizazz of our previous photographer. She was able to hold one eye closed without the use of her hand and there was no swaying. She stood absolutely and completely still - where is the fun in that?
But you know what, I have to say, she was sure was nice too!
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