Guess which state doesn't require updated photos on drivers licenses?

Picture this: The same driver license photo for 18 years
By JIM HAUG
Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- They were a few pounds lighter and their hair was longer and darker.

For some, looking at their driver's license is a reminder of what they looked like during the first Bush administration, George Herbert Walker Bush, that is. The state allows good drivers to keep their same license for as long as 18 years.

Pete Scianablo, a Daytona Beach businessman, hears "Is that you?" whenever he shows somebody his identification.

"It looks like somebody I don't know," said Scianablo of his driver's license photo taken in 1990.

He was a "hippie" with long hair who sang with rock bands in local bars.

Now Scianablo owns a lot of property along Main Street and sings in church as a born-again Christian.

"My whole lifestyle has changed," the 59-year-year-old said. "I'm a new man."

Scianablo would like to hang onto his license as a keepsake, but feels compelled to get a new picture for it.

"They hassle me at the airport," he said.

As long as they pay their license fees and update their personal information online, through the mail or over the telephone every six years, drivers don't have to appear at a Division of Motor Vehicles office and get a new photo taken for their license, state officials said.

Drivers with good records can usually go 18 years without having to go to a DMV office for a new photo, but some drivers have even older pictures. Dennis Ray, for example, recently got his license from 1988 extended for another six years through 2012.

When it expires in six years, "I will be collecting Social Security and still look 42 years old on my driver's license," said Ray, 60, of Ormond Beach.

State officials said there are "grandfather" exceptions like Ray if they renewed their license at a DMV office in the mid-90s, during a period when the state was not taking renewals through the mail.

Dated photos would seem to create problems for law enforcement, but Holly Hill Police Cmdr. Mark Barker said police don't rely "exclusively" on the driver's license photos for identification purposes.

A database called "Driver and Vehicle Information Data" will give an officer extensive information on a person's driving records, vehicles and all their old photos from the DMV files.

John R. Korp has one of those classic, frowning driver's license photos. He remembered sitting on a stool in 1991 while a DMV employee snapped a picture of him with a Kodak Instamatic.

He said he was probably in a bad mood because the picture was taken early in the
morning before he went to work at DeLand High School, where he teaches world history to ninth-graders.

The lamination on his 15-year-old license is peeling apart, but he would rather keep the bad photo than make an unnecessary trip to the DMV.

"To heck with them," Korp said.

While his hair is grayer on the sides, he said his looks haven't changed that much. Nor has the personal information on his license changed either.

"The house is paid for," Korp said. "We're not moving. That's another reason not to change it. The information is still the same."

But life is not all roses even for those who retain their bloom on their driver's licenses.

They are often deflated when they show off their old pictures.

Nancy Tonnessen, for example, got her driver's license picture taken in 1992. A server at Aunt Catfish in Port Orange, Tonnessen said her younger co-workers are not always so tactful when they see the old photo.

"They say, 'Wow, you looked good then,' " she said. "I say, 'thanks a lot.' "