Staying in Touch Abroad
I’ve been in China for close to month on a shoot, and one thing has been keeping me sane and in contact with clients and colleagues back on the home-front — Skype. By now most people know about the wonder of Skype — (Free video chat computer to computer, making and receiving calls on the cheap anywhere in the world, etc) and if you don’t, do yourself a favor and download it ASAP. For photographers and videographers though, there are even more features and add-ons that can ease the problems associated with being a small business owner and traveling abroad.
USA based phone number: For a yearly fee of around $50 bucks, Skype can be set up to give you a local number that can send and receive calls from 16 (and growing) countries. Think of it as an ‘office’ phone without a permanent address. For little money you can have a digital phone setup on at the home/office, a voicemail service, call forwarding, and a local number. That means among other things, you have permanent number no matter where you move, you can call from abroad and a local number shows up on the caller ID of friends and clients, not a bunch of 9s 0s or 800s; slick and professional, and you can check those messages anytime via your cell or internet connection.
The wonder of video: Video chat is great; New age art directors love being able to see your face but still have the comforts of the office with the quickness and ease of email. I’ve had several productive video chats via Skype. I’ve also talked people in the office through setting up specific/complicated Photoshop actions, seen several ad layouts, and approved talent in a matter of seconds. If you haven’t checked out this plugin — I-Glasses — it lets you zoom, change exposure, etc of you Mac webcam while in Skype. And here is a link that shows you how to get the highest resolution possible from the latest version of Skype — HiRes.
The ability to record audio (and video too): I’ve used this for videos, podcasts and more. If you are doing editorial work this also works great, or if you want to review the specifics (I royally stink with names sometimes) of conversations… this can’t be beat. An audio file just records into a folder onto my desktop. With a click of a button I can go over an entire conversation, hard to beat. Check this out for Mac users: Audio Record.
Plugins: There are so many useful plugins for Skype…. finding wi-fi locations, for example. Like a Honda Civic, customize it how you need. All the parts are out there, check ‘em all out here: Plugins and mod away!
One Comment
that photo is sick!
Lighting!!?