At Home with Tech

Do you feel like you’ve exhausted all options to improve your Zoom video set up at home? Here’s a new angle to help solve your problem.

If you’re experiencing a general sense of malaise while using video conference apps like Zoom to maintain your tether to the outside world, it may be due to your mediocre home-office arrangement.

You could be responding to the suboptimal visual conditions of your Zoom shot. Or perhaps your background reveals the current state of messiness in your home (not judging).

I’ve shared best practices that will minimize these challenges for you. Still there are probably only so many places where you can safely and comfortably relocate your computer or laptop.

To access that perfect location for your Zoom shot that’s probably out of reach for your computer, you need a mobile solution.

And that right there… is your answer.

Use the Zoom app on your smartphone!

Don’t Make Zoom a Balancing Act
By untethering myself from my iMac and instead using Zoom on my iPhone, I immediately opened up several new shot possibilities for my video communications.

But you can’t simply hold your smartphone for thirty minutes in the perfect location for your next Zoom call. Instead, you need a way to safely mount it.

In one of my less inspired moments, I tried carefully placing my iPhone on the top ledge of a living room window. The lighting was glorious, and the framing was perfect. But using that plan for any extended period would be begging for disaster.
(Our cat would certainly find an interest in ruining that scenario!)

So, the only reasonable way to get the shot is to securely mount my iPhone onto a tripod.

Many of us may already have access to a tripod at home, but you also need a way to attach your smartphone to your tripod.

That’s the situation I found myself in.

How to Mount your Smartphone to a Tripod
I needed to buy a smartphone tripod mount for my iPhone. There are a variety of options on the market and fortunately not that expensive.

I went with a Square Jellyfish Jelly Grip Tripod Mount for smartphones.

It’s $12.95 on Amazon Prime.

Click.

Break Free from your Desk
Now, I’m free to Zoom around my house! And a huge added benefit is the option to stand in my tripod-enabled shot. Believe me, that’s so great when you feel like you’ve been glued to your chair for the past nine weeks.

So, go ahead and take your next Zoom call on the road… or at least to the next room.

A change of scenery may be just the adjustment you need!