Removing your shadow from a photograph is most likely an aesthetic decision, which is an area of reportage photography that you dare not tread. Photojournalsim

Removing your shadow from a photograph is most likely an aesthetic decision, which is an area of reportage photography that you dare not tread. Photojournalsim has enough to answer for regarding selective composition/cropping (for example framing a shot of a group of people where it appears that they are alone, whereas if you had a wider crop you'd see more people). Using the clone tool at all is pretty much a red flag. Banning for life might seem harsh, but if you're the AP, you pretty much can't trust any further images that you get from this Photographer, so it's really the only option for them.