Thank you for that. My old photojournalist mentor, a stringer for one of the big three papers in Norway once told us that "it's never woth dying for a picture". That's very true. I've done some thinking about it, but I can hardly imagine an image I'd risk my life to take. Life's too precious. As a digression, I remember the coverage of the Gaza war back in 2008/09. I encountered some debaters on the web (different forum) that told me that my bunch (photographers, that is) should go to Sderot and show the destruction there. Thing is, they were there. Pretty much the whole duration. He told me they started to consider digging a tunnel from the cellar of the hotel into Gaza so they could finally get in. Heh.
Anyhow, there's a lot of photographers, especially in places like Sri Lanka, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Burma etc. that are quite willing to risk their lives for a good image. They think like freedom fighters, only that their weapon is a camera, the truth. It's always like that. People did the same during the war, during Korea, Vietnam and so on.
There are some extraordinary people who do risk their lives to get the photos they need. It used to be said that the creed of a war photographer was to be able to control himself when faced with a spotty 8 year old with an AK-47, trainers and high on crack, for instance. Ever seen Saving Private Ryan? The opening was partly based on the images shot by Hungarian photographer Robert Capa. He was in the landing crafts going into Omaha beach on D-day.
That's guts. And stupidity.
But alas, I think we're going a little off topic.