7.06.2006

id fotos

(NB. The picture on the previous post depicts a vista that I will soon see for myself once again: Baltit fort, Karimabad. I found the picture on a great site by Dutch photographers. Take a look for yourself www.terranomada.com)

Having an i.d. photo taken for a passport (or visa application in my case) should be a routine procedure. So I thought, but the poor kid at Shoppers Drug Mart could not get it right. The problem was that my nose reflected too much light. And people who review passport pictures dislike reflected light (apparently) off any part of the person who's identification is in question. People who grant (or, more often deny) visas are ultimately picky (at least in certain countries) so no light must reflect. And he got all flustered, because he assumed I would be embarrassed by the fact that my nose reflected too much light. It could imply my skin was overly greasy! And that would be unfortunate - devastating, actually. But I was quite confident this was not the case, as I had showered hours before.

I ended up having to go to the cosmetics section and get some makeup product to dab on my nose to flatten the light. This worked. So after try three he got the photos right and printed me two copies, one for my Pakistan visa application and one for Afghanistan. And now those pristine photos are in the mail. And hopefully the official at the HC in Ottawa will look kindly on my face, take my money (I'm sure he/she will do that anyway) and stamp my passport with ink worth more than it's weight in gold (I do not exaggerate).

Cheers.