I bought an IR remote for my camera for about $15 and it lets me release the shutter from anywhere in front of the camera. It's perfect for large group shots since you can take multiple photos without a self-timer, and I also love it for long-exposure shots.
With a long exposure photo it's important not to shake the camera at all during the photo, so I used to use self-timers so I wouldn't have to press the camera button, but with the IR remote I can just press the button on the remote when I want a picture taken.
It's a fantastic little device that's very valuable at $10 - $20.