Cameesa - The Blog

StatAttak presents shocking statistics from African countries such average life expectancy and other indicators of quality of life. The medium for spreading the word: the T-shirt. Profits from sales will go towards building an orphanage in Mozambique.

Today in Tampa, FL is the “Back In Black 2” T-Shirt Exhibit. It showcases original, one-color t-shirt designs by some notable digital illustrators and designers in the US and Europe. You know some of them. Heck one of them has a printed design on Cameesa. Showcased artists include Hydro74, munk one and Jimiyo. If you miss it, limited prints will be available until the end of May.

The Brother GT-782 Garment Printer. Brother’s inks dye the material so the colors last the life of the garment. It’s hard to tell the level of quality of the printed shirt from the video. I think with a printer like this it’s hard to get creative with placement and push the boundary. Complex prints (belt prints, specialty inks, etc.) would obviously be out of the question with a machine like this. The unit will cost about $20,000 and inks are $200 per cartridge. It’s to be available in the Spring of ‘09.

Brother T-Shirt Printer from Geoff Teehan on Vimeo.

This past Wednesday, Andy and I were very fortunate to be interviewed by Jeff Woelker from The Chicago Tech Report.  This was our first video interview and we actually did not know what to expect.  To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous.  Andy says that I get really goofy when I am put in a serious situation (I guess it’s some sort of defense mechanism, a good one at that.)

Jeff did a great job as an interviewer asking great questions, and keeping things informal (nice work Jeff).  Since we were a little anxious, we stuck to the format of the interview and didn’t branch out to talk about much more.  One thing that we regret was that we failed to mention YOU, and we learned this very quickly.  YOU, our Supporters, our families, and friends……a huge reason why we are still running Cameesa.

So, we want to thank you all for everything that you have done for us.  From responding to forum posts and Buying Tees, to telling your friends about Cameesa and putting stickers on your MacBook laptops.  2008 was the beginning of Cameesa and we look forward to our first full year as Cameesa in 2009.  Thank you.

1. Watch the interview by clicking here, The Chicago Tech Report Cameesa Interview.

2. p.s. WE WISH THAT WE WOULD HAVE SAID THIS AT THE END OF THE VIDEO:

I want to see the coolest Chicago t-shirt ever on Cameesa.

If you are not an artist but have been in Chicago before (or live in Chicago), go to the Chicago Tee Post  and give us your opinion of Chicago, or let us know what would look cool on a Chicago Tee.

If you are an artist, design a cool Chicago tee and check out the rules on the Chicago Tee Post.

Congratulations to Aubyn Beth (the first Cameesa endorsed band) for winning the Battle of the Bands last night.  Thanks to their great performance, they will be opening for Lucky Boys Confusion on December 26th at the Metro (buy your tickets here).

Check out Aubyn Beth music on MySpace, or support their design, Aubyn Beth Guitar Bear, on Cameesa.

Congrats guys!!!

I learned a very valuable lesson this week: an entrepreneur must wear many hats and, at times, he must learn how to make his own hats too.  I was relying on a few friends and professional photographers to give me some pointers about taking new Cameesa product shots; fortunately, they were very busy and I decided to learn Digital Photography on my own.  Within a few hours I realized that the basics are actually pretty simple, and we were off to new product shots in no time.

Here is a quick explanation of digital photography and our new product shots.

When it comes to digital photography there are 4 important factors you must consider: lighting, film speed/ISO(sensitivity to light), aperture(amount of light), and shutter speed(time exposed to light).

Lighting

For quality shots, you want a well-lit background and an even better-lit subject.  Mark Apsolon has a great video on which lighs to use in your photo shoot.

In our case, we had five lights, two diffused lights shinning on the background wall, and three lights illuminating the subject (Andy).  Moreover, Andy stood 6.5 feet in from the background so his shadow did not appear in the shots. 

Film Speed/ISO

The film speed determines the saturation of the colors in the photograph.  Fast film (ie. ISO 80) requires a shorter exposure to the subject, and requires very good lighting; on the other hand, slow film requires (ie. ISO 1600) a longer exposure, but can be taken in darker areas.  If you are in a well-lit place, and objects are standing-still, then you want a low ISO,  like ISO 80.  However, if you are shooting something in a dark place, or are shooting fast-moving scenes, then you want something like ISO 1600.  Keep in mind that a high ISO number correlates to granularity in your pictures, so your pictures may come out blotchy.

ISO 100 on left; ISO 3200 on right

In our case, we shot all of our pictures with ISO 80 in a well-lit environment.

Aperture (f-number)

Aperture controls the amount of light that gets into the camera.  The higher the f-number, then the less light will get into the camera, and more of the scene will be in focus; for example, f/32 will let little light into the camera and the entire scene will be in focus.  In addition, if you want the background to be blurry and the subject to be very focused and stand-out, then you should use a low f-number such as f/2.  Basically, aperture is used to adjust the depth of field in the picture.  Keep in mind that as you zoom in, the aperture may increase automatically.

f/5 - wide aperture	f/32 - narrow aperture

In our case, we used f/2.8 for all of our full t-shirt pictures because we wanted the background to be blurry and the subject to stand out. 

Exposure Time/Shutter Speed

Shutter speed controls the amount of time that the subject is exposed.  A fast shutter (1/500 sec.) can stop droplets of a waterfall because it is a quick snap, and has a short exposure time;  however, a slow shutter (1 sec.) speed can get that motion blur of a waterfall in moving pictures because the shutter is open for a longer time.  In terms of a stand-still picture, you want an exposure of about 1 second or a little lower so you can absorb the colors in the entire scene.

Long exposure of 25 seconds

In our case, the exposure was usually around 1/50 second so the colors in the picture were taken correctly

Summary

Majority of our pictures were shot at an ISO 80, with an aperture of f/2.8, and an exposure time 1/50 of a second.  Hope you guys learned a little about picture taking, and feel free to give us feedback on our new Cameesa product shots.

For more information

Check out this Tutorial on taking digital pictures

The long-awaited Cameesa Tee is now available in the Shop section of Cameesa.com.

A great big thank you goes out to Richard Fang (aka madeforyou) for designing it.  We are very excited about the way it turned out, check out the pictures below.

P.s., We have taken new product shots of our t-shirts if you want to check them out in the Shop Section.

The Vinyl Lounge t-shirts are now available in the Cameesa Shop.

I was very excited and proud to wear ‘The Vinyl Lounge’ T-shirt, in memory of my best friend Gino.  I don’t think that it could have turned out any better.  For those that have not heard yet, there is a significant story behind The Vinyl Lounge.

Once again, thanks Ryan, and G, this one is for you: