If my photo albums are to be believed, I’ve never been around on Christmas morning.

I’ve also never attended a birthday party for my kids, stayed home for their first day of school, or gone on a family vacation.

As far as photographic evidence is concerned, I don’t exist.

I am not a neglectful mother.  I do, in fact, relish these memories with my children.  I just happen to be the only one who relishes them enough to take pictures. As the person behind the camera, it’s rare to find me in our family photos.

It’s also rare to find pictures of me traveling.  I have hundreds of pictures of buildings and landscapes and interesting tourist attractions.  But few of those photos feature me in any capacity other than “unseen photographer”.

But all of that is about to change thanks to the XShot.

The XShot is a camera extender – which is basically a handheld tripod.  You attach your camera to the end of the XShot, set the timer, and take a picture.

Like so:

picture provider by XShot

That’s a photo from XShot’s press kit.  You can tell it’s not my family because the dad is holding the camera.

Using the XShot takes a little practice.

At least you can see me. Kind of.

Aside from getting used to figuring out how told hold the XShot so that the camera would point at me, I had to learn how to use the timer on my camera.  That’s not a huge deal – it took me about 15 seconds to figure out to press the button that looked like a sun dial.  I got the hang of the XShot pretty quickly.

picture taken with XShot

The Details:

The XShot is lightweight and extends from 9″ to 37″ – giving you a wide range of options for how many people you get into a shot or how much of the background you want to include.  The tripod adapter is pretty universal and should fit any compact digital camera.  It also works with the Flip video camera.

The XShot is made to be used with point and shoot cameras.  It holds a camera weight of up to 1.25 lbs.  It is not meant to be used with a heavy SLR camera. You’ll have to stick with a regular tripod or asking a stranger – or your husband – for help with the SLRs.

I’ve had the XShot for a few months now and it’s become a permanent item on all of my packing lists.  I insist on bringing it with me for all of my vacations, road trips and evenings out.  Actually, I almost always have it in my purse because it’s pretty lightweight and compact when it’s completely folded down.

There’s a group on FlickR featuring pictures taken with an XShot that will give you an idea of the different ways you can use it.

You can buy the XShot here for $21.95.

(It looks like the XShot is available in the US and Canada as well as several other countries.)

Posted in Things That Are Female Tech Geeky Tagged: family photos, flip video camera, geeky, photographer, photographic evidence, travel, vacations, xshot