Okay, so this is just my opinion.....
Looking at the photo of the rhododendron [without benefit of seeing it in 3D, I think the third vertical limb from the left has to go. I can also see dozens of bullshit twigs that should be pruned out to reduce the visual clutter. Really, getting rid of those will make it easier to see the structure you have to work with. I think for both the rhodi and the azalea, you should apply some of the basic, traditional bonsai admonitions about pruning:
Cut out any branches that go straight up or straight down.
Lateral branching should be on the outside of a curve, not the inside [leading the eye to the edge of the tree].
If you have two branches running parallel [common in both rhododendrons and azaleas] pick the stronger, and cut off the other.
Cut off anything that comes straight out toward the viewer [the whole 'poke you in the eye' thing].
With both, you want branches that bifurcate, so look for pairs and prune away 'third wheels'.
Eliminate "U" shaped pairs of branches, a particularly irritating trait of rhododendron azaleas. Pick one, and wire it into something that fits. Then turn the end of it into a pair after the bud at the end blooms next year.
Don't be afraid to cut--if you screw up, these things are amazing at giving you new material to work with.
Azaleas have a habit of filling up the canopy to maximum density. That's bad in a horticultural sense, because a cluttered canopy prevents a lot of leaves from getting light. If they're not going to get sunlight, why bother to have them there? A cluttered canopy is also a four star hotel for insects and other pests. Remember the Japanese adage about leaving enough space for the birds to fly through the tree.
When pruning, stop once in a while and look down from the apex of the tree, and see how many branches block others below them. Wire what you can to improve that, and prune away the rest.
When you're trying to figure out what to do next, hold the pot at arms' length above your head. Look up into the tree as if you were in a forest, looking up at a real tree. It's like the old thing about how do you carve a statue of an elephant? You start with a block of marble, and cut away anything that doesn't look like an elephant.
Now, that being said, azaleas are the singular subset of bonsai in which you are excused from making something look like a thousand year old tree with a trunk base that looks like Jabba the Hutt. You get a month, maybe six weeks, to enjoy the blossoms. Pruning, wiring, and shaping are about the best possible display of next year's flowers. If it looks like a tree into the bargain, that's a bonus, but keep in mind that your real purpose is to prepare a canopy that will let the blossoms strut their stuff in the spring. So much of the information here and elsewhere is two-dimensional. Try to think of your canopy surface in three dimensions, with an eye toward producing bud sites that are arrayed in a radial fashion, like the spokes of a wheel. Think of the blossoms as being at the end of the spokes, in order to display the maximum amount of surface view of the full perimeter of the blossom. They should ideally just touch the edges of each other, not cross or block.
This will no doubt sound weird, but there is a chef's trick for getting the pin bones out of a side of salmon. You drape it over the top of an inverted bowl, and the ends of the bones poke up out of the flesh and can be pulled out with tweezers. Think of the same concept with your canopy--each stem with a blossom bud is like one of those pin bones, radially extended to elevate and separate each blossom for maximum effect.
Sorry if this sounds like a late night rant, but this is all stuff I've come to understand and apply to my own work, or stuff that reflects a lesson I've learned the hard way. Take what you can use, and round-file the rest.
And if you screw something up, know that there is a Japanese proverb..."Even monkeys fall from the trees some times."
