Now let us be clear; I'm a capitalist. I'm very fond of money, because I've known not having it. Having it is better. Indeed, I hope to obtain quite a good deal more of it before I'm done, though always with the thought that it's what you do with it that counts, not merely the possessing it. (Which is why I like to invest in companies which produce tangible things that make people's lives better.)

In fact I'm already, technically, a multi-trillionaire as you can see from one of the banknotes in my currency collection. (I know what I said yesterday about preferring circulated notes, but in this case I couldn't resist.) Unfortunately I need them to be Australian rather than Zimbabwean dollars, especially if one wishes to buy a dozen roses on this day of the year. (I thought about using my hundred trillion note for this, but let's not be too hyperbolic.)

But I'm not an unrestrained capitalist. Some things cause me to roll my eyes, like Easter Eggs making an appearance in shops more than 2 months before Easter when Santa's corpulent butt has barely been kicked off the shelves. Or the monetisation of romantic sentiment, as we find in Valentine's Day.

If anyone has the right to be put off Valentine's Day after my last two it's me, but that's not the point especially as this year is diametrically different in that respect. The point is that if you want to do something special for your partner it's far better to do it on a day that has significance to the two of you, and not to a merchant who's looking to make a buck from it by using the Zimbabwean CPI to tweak their prices between February 7 and 14. Otherwise it's just some pro forma gesture, hollow and meaningless, which could be done for anyone.

I was originally planning to find a heart shaped chocolate to macro in on today (which probably would have made a better shot) but when I saw the eggs I decided to kill two clichés with one PAD. And yes, while I'm guilty of facilitating the commercialisation by buying the eggs, the thought of sharing cream filled chocolate eggs along with freshly brewed coffee in the near future made me realise that alas we photographers must sometimes compromise and suffer for our art.

(This was always going to be a problematic shot in terms of exposure because of the difference between the deep red of the box and the pale green of the banknote. I used a flash on this one along with another new toy that I bought on Saturday; a flash diffuser for the 430 EX. Though unlike the macro lens, that one didn't cost anywhere near $10 trillion.)

Last Year