>he already had the photos.
>
>unless he needed more time and space to observe the child he's
>done with it.
>
>bringing it up to the mom after the fact is like 'I want to be
>nice to you'

That's the point. He did it as a courtesy, I would think. Not as a requirement.

>
>my biggest questions are
>
>1. why is this dude taking snapshots in a boring ass airport.
>this is something you do when starting out.

Maybe he was...bored?

>
>2. we don't know if the old guy is actually a professional
>(the idea of him botching the situation with the moms leads me
>to believe he's not used to this)
>

Who said he botched anything? The mom may have just overreacted at the very thought of it. People do that.

>3. when's the last time you took photos of a damn airplane
>window with your 'real' camera? Be honest.
>

I don't know where they were in the air at the time. Maybe he saw something interesting. Maybe the clouds, maybe the sunset, maybe mountains. Who knows?? Maybe the 60yr old man had his Canon and not an iPhone to use instead?