She reaches into her purse for her make-up.

Without a trace of irritation, photographer Warren Pennypacker offers her a mirror.

"I got my own," says Fritchlee of East Hempfield, brushing on eye shadow as she peers into the tiny mirror of her compact.

She apologizes as she explains: "I didn't look so great on my other one. I was worried and I was in a hurry."

Pennypacker looks at her existing license. "We'll top that," he tells her. "No problem."

This time she wants to get the picture right. She had it taken before she went to Chuck E. Cheese with her kids. She came on a day that wasn't rainy.

"I thought about these things, I really did," she says later.

With lipstick in place and a last look in the mirror, she follows the photographer's instructions to sit back, relax and smile.

The first picture pops up on a computer screen so Fritchlee can see it. Neither Pennypacker nor Fritchlee is satisfied with it. Pennypacker wants to see more of her eyes.

Three photos later, Fritchlee is satisfied. Pennypacker is too.

"I tell you it's a lot better than the last one. That was worth it," he assures her.

Fritchlee's preening was a little more obvious than some others who came to the Regency Square driver license center on Rohrerstown Road in early March, but she certainly wasn't alone.

Teen girls flipped their hair. Young men gave furtive glances into the column mirror as they waited in line. Women, such as Doris Ortiz Hernandez, made a last-minute trip to the bathroom mirror to make sure they looked just right.

Primping for a driver's license photo is not uncommon, said Linda Paterson, director of industrial services for Keystone Goodwill. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation hires 12 of the organization's clients to take photos at two Lancaster County driver's license locations.

Paterson, who sometimes takes photos, turns down collars and adjusts ties when she's asked. She has seen young men come in wearing T-shirts, but donning shirts, ties and jackets for the photos. One person told her, "My mother would kill me if I got my picture taken in a T-shirt.'"

"I think it's the most important picture you can have besides your baby picture," said Fritchlee, explaining why she cares so much. "It's the picture you use the most. Everybody sees it."

Kay Baldrige of Lancaster, with a diamond stud in her nose, came for her picture just after getting her long, blond hair cut and styled. It just happened that way, she insisted, she didn't feel like she had to do that for her photo. If she hadn't, though, she would have made sure her hair looked nice.

"I have to look at the picture for the next four years," she explained.

Primping doesn't just fall in the women's department. Billy Frampton of Willow Street let his wife style his shoulder-length, blond hair -- "she sprayed some stuff on it," he said.

He purposely wore a black shirt and his Viking necklace because he likes the way he looks in them. His cross necklace was hidden under his shirt.

Frampton said he thought about taking his glasses off, the way he hasposed for previous pictures, but decided against it. "I'm not so vain anymore."

Just before Sandra Powers took his picture, he removed his blue jean jacket with "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath," (the name of a Black Sabbath tribute band) emblazoned on it, and smiled for two pictures. The second one will work, he said.

Not everyone puts as much thought and effort into looking good, but they still pay some attention to how they look.

Samantha Davis, a Temple University student from Manheim Township, thought she was doing fairly well for being on spring break: "I actually got up and showered this morning. I put on fresh lipstick," she said. When she arrived, she checked the mirror "to make sure I didn't have hat hair."

She just wasn't as excited about this photo as she was her first one, she said. "It's still says I'm under 21 so"¦whoo-hoo."

Some people claimed they couldn't care less and that they did nothing different because they were getting their pictures taken.

"I don't think it's like a modeling shot. They always look bad no matter what you do," said Jerry Brey of Landisville. He said he would have shaved if he had needed to, but he didn't. "My haircut's short enough, I don't have to worry about it."

And if the picture wasn't flattering the first try, he probably wouldn't ask for redo, he said.

The way David Llano of East Petersburg sees it, "I don't care about what other people think. I present myself as I am."

Samantha Kohl of Oxford, who dyes her hair red and stands out from the crowd with her punk-style clothing, said she didn't want to be embarrassed by a bad photo identification card. She spent extra time doing her hair and makeup before she came, but made up her mind to take the first photo whatever it was.

"It actually doesn't look bad," she said, sounding a bit surprised, as she looked at her card. "I'm actually satisfied with it."

Linda Espenshade's e-mail address is lespenshade@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus