ODPs

My first Official Document Photo was taken in 1998. I was traveling to Japan an was getting a passport. I parked my parents Buick in front of the AAA on main street and strolled into the modest office. They took me to a back corner. Everything was white. My hair was long at the time and I wore a blue colored polyester shirt I had bought at the thrift store down the street. I loved that shirt. The camera stood firmly anchored on a tripod. I made sure to look straight ahead. I smiled. The camera had 2 lenses and though they snapped "one" picture, two were taken. The picture was printed and developed immediately. It was still damp and smelling like vinegar when they slipped it inside the special passport photo envelope - your passport to adventure.
Since then, I have posed for many an ODP: In a photo booth at the Zagreb train station, in a small photo shop in Vukovar, at a store in Philadelphia's China Town, in a Kiosk in front of Velika Kushenija Supermarket. The times have changed. Digital has swept the old two/lense cameras into history - now they can print identical pictures from a single digital image much faster than any standard developing procedure.
Today I got an ODP at the computer and Photo Store at Friendship of Nations metro and it tops all and is on the record for most unique ODP experience to date.
After asking to have an ODP, they ushered me around the corner to a small, darkened room. There was a coat rack, a desk with a computer, a barrier of screens and a high backed chair in the middle of the room. The man pointed me to a coat wrack and as soon as I got my hat off, he said "There is a mirror around the corner you can use." Well, I know I had been out and about all day, and had been wearing a hat - but i didn't think I looked all that bad, all the same I obediently left the room or arrange myself in front of the mirror. It was an ODP - really what did I have to do - they have a reputation of looking terriable.
I sat on the chair in the shadowed room. Back against the chair head straight, no smiling with an open mouth. His commands came in a quick, no-nonsense order as he stood between the screens. Snap/ flash. the room illuminated for an instant and the screens faded to purple from bright white. Snap/flash. Snap/flash. A succession of seven shots followed - the photographer readjusting and checking his shot each time.
We move over to the computer and he pulls the shots up - I pick one (they pretty much all look the same - so there was ONE lazy eye shot - but really all the rest were basically the same - for all his maneuverings.) He then magnified the picture, popped it into photoshop and started airbrushing. I'm standing right there beside him and he is airbrushing my face. Really makes you feel your imperfections. I had to stop myself from bringing my had up to my eyes or my lips - or that shiny spot on the forehead while he was jogging around the screen with his little circle. ZHup. Zhup. Zhup. Look - flawless skin! Then he started on the eyes. First, he removed the shadows, then he intensified my eyeliner. When he started drawing eyelashes (no kidding) I finally said - "That's nice - but its just a document photo - I don't think you really need to do this."
"No," he said, "on a small photo this will really make the eyes stand out."
Finally he was done. he brought up the brushed photo and the original to compare. "Well?" He asked.
In truth, I actually liked the original, non-airbrushed version better. It wasn't that it was significantly different - just something about the color looked, well more real. But he had spent his time on it, and obviously it was supposed to be an improvement - so I said "Great" And he printed it off and for $2.50 I have 4 identical airbrushed passport photos. Not only that - but they keep them on file for the year - and if I ever need ODPs again - I can just go in and pick them up. No waiting, no added airbrushing - just print and pay.
I got home, and Alister said that the pictures were great. The photographer was right about one thing - on a small picture, the eyes do really stand out - and without magnification - you can't even tell that he added extra eyelashes. Its a shame really that this ODP is just going in a government registration file and won't really be used or seen - all that airbrushing for nothing. ;)