To a photographer, down-range from the subject of a photo is at least as important as the subject itself. Photographic composition is an art. There is nothing in a photo by accident.
Larry Storch once told me and my dad that “nothing appears on television or in a movie that wasn’t meant to be there.”
I’m a photojournalist. That photographer was laughing as he FTPed them to AP.
I know I’ve taken shots of politicians I don’t like that I would have loved to have put on the wire. I have one of Obama that is priceless, but it is just between me and some like-minded colleagues.
What makes someone a professional is leaving your political views at the door and acting like a professional.