Kevin Gilbert's old photo albums are filled with familiar faces.
You'll find four different presidents of the United States -- all whom he photographed during 25 years at the Washington Times. He captured a variety of different moments, but to Kevin, the presidential candids are the most special.
"I did a lot of professional sports, a lot of travel, international news," Gilbert revealed, "but my real love was covering the White House."
His first assignment was Ronald Regan. He snapped this photo before the president left for a summit with Mikhail Gorbachev -- a meeting that changed history.
"Every time Regan came in the room or did anything, it was inspiring. You just felt this tingle. Something I never felt with Bush, but I felt it with Clinton and I felt it with Obama. That these guys have this -- there's something about them that's really incredible," Gilbert revealed.
President Bush was likable. Gilbert mentioned that he'd remember faces and would ask about your family.
"I had triplets, and he would always kind of say, 'Hey Kevin, how's that outfield doing?'"
President Clinton kept the press at more of an arm's length, but he understood the power of the lens. Of all the pictures Kevin took during the Clinton/Gore years, one from the annual White House Easter egg roll clearly stood out.
"The president put the whistle up to his mouth and blew, and the kids, rather than rolling them actually flung them and these hard boiled eggs went flying over the president and the first lady. And she just laughed like, 'Oh my gosh, look what's happening!' Those kind of little moments are really genuine. You can never set that up," Gilbert said about the photo.
The final president he covered was George W. Bush. Gilbert told this story from the campaign plane where Governor Bush, at the time, called him out for falling asleep.
"He said, 'Hey new guy, no sleeping on my plane' and he just kept going. He was just a jokester that way."
After a quarter century inside one oval office, Kevin left it for another -- serving as a consultant for NBC's The West Wing. He went on to shoot for a variety of TV shows, before finally trading the beltway for Bellevue. He's working at a start-up designed to help regular people find their inner photographer.
"I've dedicated the last five or six years of my life to helping people go from typical to better, to make a better photograph," Gilbert said.
It doesn't matter whether it's taken inside the White House or your own house.
"The pictures I'm most proud of are probably the ones I took yesterday, because each day is a new adventure, a new memory."
