They must. The State Dept. (through its wholly owned subsidiary, the US Passport Agency) requires that every agency that accepts passport applications charge $30.00 per new application, or reapplications for people whose passports are over 15 years old. No more and no less. It's to prevent price wars and gouging.

If you can renew yours with the renewal-by-mail form, you don't pay the $30.00.

If you pay the post office, the money goes to the post office. If you pay the court house, the money goes to the court house. Some libraries and other public institutions offer the service, and the money goes to them. I can only assume that, like us, the post office puts their fees into their operating fund, after they defray the costs of paying the agent (who must be a regular employee trained to do the job), space to work with the client, secure storage for executed applications, office supplies and mailing costs.

We also take photos, using a special printer with software that produces prints per State Dept. specs. The fee for that goes into the same fund.

You can take the photos yourself with a film or digital camera, as long as you follow the very complete directions they provide on the website. They're very fussy about the background, which must be absolutely blank and either white or offwhite. And you can smile, but no teeth. Opening the mouth changes the shape of the face just slightly, and sometimes the shape of the eyes. It can also obscure eye color, which must be discernable in the photo.

The rounded corners should be OK.

My daughter washed and dried hers. It delaminated. The chewed-by-dog one belonged to a man whose mail is delivered through a slot in his door. The dog ripped open the certified mail envelope and chewed the corner off the passport before his master got home. Poor guy never got to use it before he had to have it replaced -- at full fee -- again.

Good luck with the photography. It's not difficult if you have the equipment.