For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Meet our sixth story contributor, James Mcmanus (a.k.a. james m) is from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. For him, the best thing to come out of being a Flickr member are all the fantastic friends he’s made through the Sydney Photobloggers group from their many outings, trips away (sometimes to visit the folks from the  Melbourne Silver Mine group) or spending Christmas with each other. Needless to say, he has many good memories from the last 8 years on Flickr.

"There are plenty of members out there who’s work I have been following for a long time and would love to meet someday for a beer then head out for the day photographing with them. Some I have already had the pleasure meeting but on the top of my list is notraces and his wife Supercapacity. Come May this year I am off to Canada and the U.S. for long overdue holiday and in June will get a chance to spend some time with both and maybe even meet a few others on the list while I am over there as well."

James’ first 2 favorites are from Bob and Ali and the remaining 6 are from other people he would like to meet up with this May.

Thank you James for sharing your story! We will be back shortly with our next episode.

Photos from james m, notraces, Supercapacity, PHOTOMO, joe holmes, Mute*, anniebee, diyosa, and sneakrluv14.