A Surprising Turn of Events

For the past few weeks, Eric Banana has been secretly working on a plan - getting a surprise wedding gift for Astro Girl. Given his penchant for luxury glitter, could it be some precious gem from Tiffany & Co? Or a branded bag from say, Hermès? Well, Eric Banana is still serving a ban imposed by Astro Girl prohibiting him from shopping at Tiffany. As for Hermès bags, Eric Banana's income has not reached astronomical heights yet. Not that Astro Girl pursues these material things in life anyway. She's Little Miss Pragmatic after all. She finds her joy in simpler things. For Eric Banana, it was a long struggle to find her something that is touching and meaningful...

Well, the fact that Eric Banana is openly blogging about it now suggests that it is no longer a secret. Yes, Astro Girl has managed to somehow ruin her own surprise. Eric Banana was planning to present the surprise wedding gift to the love of his life on their wedding day, but things don't always go according to plan...

The surprise gift is a 20" x 34.3" canvas print of an iconic photo of AstroBanana, the very same one that greets all visitors to this blog itself. This photo was taken last year by up-and-coming photographer, Kenneth Ong, who has gone on to set up his own photography outfit, twenty4frames photography. AstroBanana observed that his photography skills have been steadily improving since then. Keep up the good work, Kenneth!

The canvas print was done by Brilliant Prints, an established Australian canvas printing company that has set up operations in Singapore in recent years. Their website provides a lot of information on canvas prints and reassures potential customers with quality guarantees that provide absolute peace-of-mind. In fact, one doesn't even have to pay upfront. Eric Banana was very comfortable placing his order with Brilliant Prints and he must say that he is very pleased with the professional service and prompt turnaround time provided by Dylan Vo and his team. More importantly, the final product turned out to be a masterpiece. Given that the shot of AstroBanana was set against a black background, they were surprised that even the finest hair details were retained after it has been printed on canvas.

Hmmm, you may be thinking now that Eric Banana's wedding gift doesn't involve any work on his part - the photo was taken by Kenneth and the canvas printing was done by Brilliant Prints. Well, Eric Banana did do something although it's not immediately apparent. Kenneth and DGT were experimenting with ring-light effects when the photo was taken, so the end-product had the ring-light effect manifesting very obviously on Eric Banana's spectacles. This marred the photo to a certain extent. But Eric Banana really liked this particular photo a lot - they were both sporting very vibrant smiles and Astro Girl looked extremely cheerful. As such, he decided to work on removing the ring-light reflection on his glasses. This involved working several late-night shifts to weave some Photoshop magic. As for Astro Girl's image, let's just say she doesn't need any more editing to make her look better :P

So how did Astro Girl ruin her own surprise? Eric Banana arranged for the Brilliant Prints courier to deliver the canvas print to his house on Friday evening... when Astro Girl decided to show up at his house to help him to dismantle his single bed. Someone knocked on the door and she opened it... uh-oh, bye bye to surprise :( The original surprise, that is. The surprise took on another form because Astro Girl was absolutely surprised when she opened the door to see the courier holding a blown-up picture of Eric Banana and her. Yay!

The canvas print will be displayed in AstroBanana's private gallery a.k.a. their room :)