On the gun -
$1600 for a post-ban AR?
Egads...for that much I'd expect it to clean my laundry for me! At the least, I'd want it to do more than shoot 600 rounds without a flaw. I'd gunk it up with dirt and see if it still fired. Then I'd do the same thing using crappy Wolf ammo. And then empty a few mags as fast as I could with it full of dirt and eating Wolf ammo. If it could do all that without choking, then I'd be a lot more willing to spend $1600 on it.
On the photo -
The Four Rules are not so concrete as some of you guys are claiming. At gun shows, for example, the sellers flagrantly point guns at people, because to pick one up you often can't avoid it. However, because the Rules are being broken deliberately in that circumstance, extra care is taken to ensure that they aren't loaded and the trigger isn't touched.
Similarly, a lot of photos are taken from down-range of a gun muzzle. This violates the Rules as well, so again extra care is taken to ensure safety. If you don't think this is acceptable, I presume you'll start reaming Oleg as soon as you have the chance. He does it all the time (here's one example:
http://www.a-human-right.com/RKBA/S_WELCOME.JPG).
In SR-15-M4's case, it seems that appropriate care WAS taken to ensure the guns were empty. However, the finger-in-the-trigger-guard detail looks like a bad habit, rather than something deliberately posed for the photo (especially on the AR). If so, it would be a very, very good idea to break yourself of it.