As  Myth Busters says, we are professionals
My wife (she does have a CDL and can operate backhoe as well) insisted that she had done a pretty good job washing the underside of Amy.  But when I put her in the air, much more sand and salt flowed out while washing.  And nobody got hurt

Ok, I make things work/do what I want.  I like knowing where the edge is, so going to the edge is routine.  Use of bigger equipment means I can do more.
Picking up the back of vehicle (Amy) to inspect cleaning job is not unusual.  Picking up back of vehicle while parked on trailer is not that much more.  Picking up back of vehicle while parked on trailer loading ramps (even with blockage on front wheels) is begging for comments.  SO:
You know that if you had shortened the lift strap a little more you could have almost raised it up onto its nose so you would not have had to get down on your knee's.  Less chance of getting hurt.  (When doing impressive things one should plan the escape route's, and starting on your hands and knees means a very slow start.)

Not an impressive photo for me, and I would think not to Professional either.  No myth to bust there, Luck is arbitraary.

Even with the straps "long", I have enough lift to have stood poor Amy on her nose.  It is just that my wife did not want me to go higher.  She also gets nervous when I load the backhoe onto the trailer and it picks up the back of the pickup and sometimes my front wheels bounce up in the air.  4WD was engaged for the breaking as well as wheel chocks in use.  The danger to me is the bucket and the rear of Amy getting together and requiring body work.  Now that it has been done once I will not get as much protesting from wife.  The rear "feet" / stabilizers were also deployed to prevent the backhoe from rolling back.
  But you are right, it is not as risky as I was playing it.  In one of my earlier posts we got into a little discussion of safety and the only rule that is enforced is Using Safety Glasses.   The explanation for the expression "and nobody got hurt" is there
   The safety piece you can put on the arms for the front bucket require the bucket to be much higher but I could make a shorter one so the bucket could not drop in case of Hyd failure.
  My little Amy came out of the Oklahoma panhandle and has no rust, I want to try to make her live longer than me.  My car is an 85 Lincoln Town Car and my truck is an 87 F250 diesel.  Today I ordered a Power Trax Lock-riight.  I am too old and fat to want to try to get unstuck in the sand or surf in the Texas heat.

Perhaps working in "the oil patch" with its inherent dangers, and getting the job done attitude, has led you to think that "no one was hurt" means it was considered safe.  Being a professional, you know that getting under a raised load (even with two straps) is not considered safe. 

Do you know "You can always tell a Sweede, but you can't tell him much", also applies to old men.
_{Coming from an old Sweede}

Photo's of your wheeling trips would be more impressive/enjoyable to me,

lol