The 2012 presidential campaign is now over, and it’s back to business as normal for CNN’s White House unit. Covering a campaign requires a lot of planning, mental focus, and great physical effort.

The days were 20-plus hours long while sleep was elusive and short. For example, one day the press following President Obama woke up in Cleveland, Ohio for a campaign event in the morning, then traveled to Dubuque, Iowa for an evening rally, then flew to Concord, New Hampshire and took an hour long bus ride to Nashua, checking into a hotel at 2 am, only to wake up a few hours later and do it all over again.

An example of some of the memories from election night in Chicago is this “eye-candy” picture of the shadows of (L to R) CNN White House correspondent Brianna Keilar, photojournalist Burke Buckhorn, and producer Adam Aigner-Treworgy doing a live report from the floor of McCormick Plaza on election night.