Believe the Lie

I personally try to avoid covering stuff the mainstream blogs have picked up but I couldn’t help myself this time. I was going through some 350 posts in my newsreader and found myself pressing P(revious) a few times to return to piece about the XShot. The idea is great and it’s about time someone brought something like this to market. It’s basically a sturdy (yet lightweight) rod with a camera mount on one end which allows you to take self portraits. Any of us who’ve attended a party know these are everyone’s favorite shot. Everyone wants to take a picture with the guest of honor or a cute friend. While my friend Kelly is an excellent party-self-portrait picture taker, I am terrible at them, often cutting out over half my face in the shots. The XShot extends out to over three feet and can tilt up and down to perfectly frame your shot. When it’s not being used, it collapses to just 9-inches which makes it easy stow away in a day pack or large purse.

The other thing that caught my attention is all the pictures on the website looked so familiar. A quick email to John, the VP of the company, confirmed that they were indeed in and around Santa Barbara, my hometown! John is a local mechanical design engineer and in his spare time, he works in his machine shop, inventing products. A small local company that makes an affordable quality product that meets a demand is one I am always willing to support!