Since we’re all stuck inside and doing meetings on Zoom, it’s time to roll out a few fun and free Zoom backgrounds from the North Shore for you to use.

If you haven’t used Zoom background before, they are an easy way to hide the mess behind you, celebrate locations that you love and personalize what everyone sees. I can’t think of a better place to have a background from than Minnesota’s North Shore.

To use these, you’ll need to first download the free Zoom backgrounds. The easiest way is to right click the image and select “Save Link As” from the menu. Then save it onto your computer somewhere that’ll be easy for you to find. I make a folder in Documents called “Free Zoom Backgrounds.” If using right click doesn’t work for you, then click the image and you should see a full-sized version that you can then download using “Save Image As” using the right click menu.

In the Zoom application, open settings. You’ll see a menu on the left side of the screen. Select Virtual Background. You’ll see a few options that Zoom offers. To add those that you get here, click the “+” button. After you do that, find the folder where you saved the images and then click on the one that you want. Virtual backgrounds work best when you have a green screen (Amazon link. If you buy from the link, I get a small commission. Please, don’t let that influence your buying decision), but greens screens aren’t necessary.

The first couple of images come from the Grand Marais harbor and feature the Grand Marais lighthouse. Others are from around the area. For fun, I’m throwing in couple extra images from other locations. They come from Sanibel Island, Devil’s Tower, Blue Mounds State Park and Carhenge.

They are all formatted to 1920 x 1080 pixels, which should work with most webcams. I put my logo on each in a reduced size that should be hidden by your body. Most of the free zoom background that I’ve seen have big logos or graphics added that make them feel more like marketing instead of a giveaway.

Of course, this is marketing. I hope you consider helping me out by buying a print or two. If you’re just into supporting artists, then you could buy a gift certificate from my store and gift it to me, or if you have PayPal, you can send something to bryan@bryanhansel.com.