One reason I still enjoy my job is that each day, something exciting could happen.

Once in a while, a big news event occurs, or I am assigned to something fun, like shooting a Red Sox game. But more often, it’s when I return from a routine assignment with an outstanding photograph that creates havoc at nightly budget meetings, usually because editors had something else planned for the front page. It’s a great feeling.

Nothing, however, beats the adrenaline rush from coming back from a spot news assignment – often on deadline – with a great image. I know it will run huge on next day’s front page, that thousands of people will see it, and it will evoke emotions from laughs to gasps (depending on the situation and the reader.)

My first mentor, Jay Reiter, instilled in me that it’s much easier to work hard and return from assignments with a good image, rather than make excuses about why there were no photo opportunities. Most every situation has a moment or creative angle that can produce a good photo; you just need to work for it. Planning, anticipation and persistence create opportunities. The moment often presents itself for only a fraction of a second.

After 25 years of honing these skills, they pay dividends on a regular basis. Photojournalists also have a strict code of conduct to preserve our journalistic integrity. Our credibility depends on it. Yet I breached one of these codes during a recent assignment that gained worldwide attention – my tackling Norman “Bo” Thompson.

The feedback has been mostly positive, but I have also heard criticism from inside and outside my profession. Several people have cited a National Press Photographers Association bylaw to chastise me for conduct with Thompson, a fugitive who jumped off a third-story balcony while fleeing from police. It says: “While photographing subjects, do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.”

My response is that I’m a human with a conscience, an American, and proud citizen of Lewiston first, and professional photojournalist second. Could any photojournalists live with themselves if they hid behind this principle while shooting, for example, a child being swept downstream to certain death, after rescuers missed them upstream?

If alone downriver, and having the opportunity to put down my camera and pull the child to safety, I always would. Perhaps an award-winning image could have been made from the tragedy, and I would have had the policy to protect me. But I could not live with myself, even if it meant winning a Pulitzer Prize.

I have no doubt about which side of the camera I would be on, in scenarios like this. So when the Thompson situation occured earlier this month, I chose to act as a citizen, instead of a photojournalist. I made a split-second decision based upon my personal code, which is something no journalistic code can usurp.

I am extremely proud to work at a newspaper that shares these values. During most conversations about that day, we discuss the “what ifs” and breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn’t injured, and I continue to receive positive feedback from everyone at the Sun Journal.

But I have also heard from colleagues who received memos after my actions, stating if they were to act similarly, they would face termination or suspension. It’s satisfying to receive calls or e-mails from some who work at institutions like this, praising me for what I did, telling me they would do the same – no matter the consequences.

After a terrifying trip to New York to appear on CNN and the good-natured ribbing I’ve gotten from friends and colleagues, my life has remained basically the same, except now I’m often greeted as “hero” or “stud.” (My deepest thanks to Rex Rhoades and Mark Laflamme…not!) I am still receiving sincere notes and e-mails from family, friends, colleagues and strangers.

But the absolute best thing coming from all this is the respect I have gained with my three young sons, who make me so proud. They are extremely honest, caring and compassionate individuals. It is something I believe they have learned from my wife and I.

I think, and hope, my actions have served to reinforce it.

Russ Dillingham is the Sun Journal’s chief photographer. A longer version of this essay is available on www.sunjournal.com/EditorialPage, where readers are invited to post their comments.