We’re celebrating another 24 hours of Flickr on Friday, August 8, 2008!

A year ago, just over 7,000 of you shared a slice of your day from May 5, 2007. It was wonderful to see the similarities (weddings, birthdays, graduations, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, etc.) and differences across the flickrverse.

We’re going to celebrate another 24 hours of Flickr — Flickr 888. Take a photo anytime when it’s August 8th where you are, then share it in the group.

There’s more! Our cool friends at MOO are going to create unique Flickr 888 Postcard Packs that will be available early this fall. So, mark your calendars and save the date for another 24 hours of Flickr, Friday August 8, 2008.

Photos from wazari, Fluffy Wobbleyou, Declan!, and DG Belle.
View more 24 hours of Flickr photos from last year’s event, on May 5, 2007.

Earlier this week, the Grand Pier at Weston Super Mare in the UK was destroyed in a fire. This is a devastating loss for the local area – photos and videos uploaded to Flickr give you some insight into the scale of the devastation.

June 2008

July 2008

Photos from menickstephensorg and dobbo_sf.

“The payloads are attached to a sounding balloon which climbs to over 100,000 ft. The balloon is tracked with GPS telemetry systems. When the balloon is launched, it is about 12 ft. in diameter. At peak altitude it is between 40-50 ft. in diameter before burst (or commanded cut-down).” — PentaxForums.com

Photos from arena_5. View the complete ASTRO-09 set. Via zyrcster in Flickr Central.

“Someone left behind this Holga Picture, someone try to take it from the door. yet it’s still there… I wonder how much time will be there, I wonder who took this picture.”

“After finding this my mind didn’t rest until I could take a place of this abandoned cinema.So yesterday I went to this place and my thoughts were to that anonymous photographer who took that Holga…”

From magic fly paula.

We’ve been working with the cool kids at Picnik to make it easier to edit your pictures and we’re excited to announce the new Picnik Photo Basket! Starting today, you can send a batch of freshly uploaded pictures to Picnik for editing all at once!

Try out the new Photo Basket when you upload your next batch of pictures, either using the web upload form or the desktop Uploadr. Once you’ve added titles and descriptions, you’ll see a new “Save & Edit” button down the bottom. Clickety-click and we’ll send those photos into Picnik as a batch for you. Then you can crop and sharpen to your heart’s content, save everything and come back to your photostream.

To learn more about Picnik and how to edit your photos on Flickr check out the Picnik FAQ.

George Eastman House is the oldest photography museum in the world, housed in the former home of Mr. George Eastman, the so-called father of modern photography and founder of Eastman Kodak company. The Museum is also one of the premiere centres of photographic conservation in the world. You can imagine our delight when they decided to join The Commons on Flickr!

Their initial foray includes 3 sets:

The Chusseau-Flaviens collection depicts “social and political figures and events throughout Europe and the colonial empires in the Near East and the Far East” from the 1890s to just before World War I…

…Messrs. Southworth & Hawes were partners in commercial studio in Boston, primarily shooting daguerreotype portraits. The studio opened in 1843, and closed twenty years later…

…and a small selection of exquisite Autochromes, the first colour photographic process, invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1904.

In other news, Brooklyn Museum has just uploaded their next installment of their glorious Egyptian lantern slides, this time with a focus on people and life of the time. We’re also excited to be launching the ability to search across all the photos in The Commons! Fuelled by your tagging and other descriptive commentary, we can now all bear witness to brand new emergent collections found only on Flickr, created by you. Some favourites so far include blue and yellow, moustachioed men wearing ties and crowded streets.

Photos from Rastaschas, J@m, and Rémi avec un i.

“Usually when you think of city surfing it would have to be Cape Town, Miami, Santa Monica, etc., not Munich, 250 miles from the coast. A quick search for Munich surfer turns up loads of images. In case you were wondering how this works, I found some video.” Lomokev

Photos from alina.rudya, hyperbuoy, and Franky Bono.
As shared in FlickrCentral — if you’ve an idea for FlickrBlog, please share!

The One Hundred Strangers project is a learning group for people who want to improve the social and technical skills needed for taking portraits of strangers and telling their stories. The method is learning by doing.

Photos by slithy-toves, Teppo (the group’s founder) & Kerrreee.

Photos from sculptress studio.