I became a “citizen journalist” for the inauguration and took my photo and video gear out to document the events. I submitted photos and videos into CNN’s iReport and picked up over 16,000 views.

My first event was on Saturday of Obama’s train trip to Washington DC. I went down to Claymont DE where they slowed down the train and Obama stood on the back platform to wave to the crowd. I sent in photos to CNN iReport and my twitpic account. My wife shot video of it with a Kodak flip camera.

On Sunday we were in Washington DC and attended the We Are One concert at Lincoln Memorial. The ATT 3G network pretty much fell over and I wasn’t able to post to my twitpic account. I was able to email in photos to CNN’s iReport site and they featured them.

For the inauguration on Tuesday, I went to the Princeton NJ Public Library and shot photos with my Fuji S3 camera and uploaded them off my Mac using a Sprint 3G card from the library to CNN iReport and Facebook.

I was impressed with the producers from CNN’s iReport. On all three days that I submitted photos to them. I was contacted either on my phone or email by a producer to verify the facts and get additional information.

My work is at:

http://www.ireport.com/people/jaysbryant

http://twitpic.com/photos/jaysbryant

http://tinyurl.com/8jokls

My pictures have picked up a lot of comments on Facebook and iReport.

I spent 20 years as newspaper photographer and editor back in the “traditional” deadtree world. I started photographing political events in 1976 (http://tinyurl.com/8vknbr). I am excited that social media has now empowered me to publish and distribute my work on my own.