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Seattle Times photographer has been an eyewitness to history for more than 50 years

One groundbreaking photo took 10 days to plan. #k5evening

SEATTLE — He has seen us through the good times and the bad. And we have seen ourselves through the eyes of Greg Gilbert.

"I've been allowed to be in places that most other people are roped off," Gilbert says. 

"I'm always looking for photos."

For more than a half-century, Gilbert has captured the stories of our lives and put them on the pages of the Seattle Times.

"It's always just being at the right place at the right time. You look for moments."

Gilbert recalls one of his most memorable snaps.

"Chip Hanauer flying upside-down in a hydroplane." He says, "There are some pictures that I look at and think, gee did I really shoot that?"

One photo of a nighttime lightning strike over Seattle was published as a poster.

"The Times sold 70 or 80,000 of those prints."

He's photographed the powerful and famous, including Paul McCartney, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, and Sophia Loren. 

And the late author, Kurt Vonnegut.

"He had two open packs of Pall Mall cigarettes.  And there was smoke enveloping him all the time, so I quickly ran back to the car and I got two more lights and I put them behind his head, so the light would pass through the smoke."

The photo and photo session remain one of Gilbert's favorites.

"And he would start laughing, and the laugh would turn into a cough, and the cough just went on and on and on. I thought he was gonna die of lung cancer right there on the spot."

In 1995, Gilbert scored a first from aboard Boeing's inaugural 777 transatlantic flight.

"It was the first time in the history of photography that a digital image, or any kind of a photo image was transmitted from the air and published."

Gilbert created a remote triggering system to catch the Kingdome implosion at just the right moment.

"It took me about 10 days to plan that picture."

When he's not on the job, he's aboard his floating home, a 93-year-old boat named Winfred.

"I've lived on it for almost 20 years. It sleeps six, eats eight and drinks 33.

He restored the 46-foot yacht himself.

"It's invigorating. Life on the water is just the best."

But even here, Gilbert keeps his cameras at the ready.

"One time, I had just three little chicks on a piece of wood, just floating by. No mom or dad or anything."

Now in his 70's, Greg Gilbert has no plans to retire. And almost no regrets.

"Someone asked me one time, 'Are there any photos that you regretted taking?'  And I said, 'No, there are photos that I regretted not taking.'"

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