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.

The fifth member who we spoke to about his experiences during his eight years on Flickr is Jared Tarbell (a.k.a. jared), from Albuquerque. While he doesn’t quite remember how he first found himself on Flickr’s chat rooms back in 2004, one thing he still remembers is that it was fun: interacting with strangers through images and text. He joined a transhumanism group. He started ťŗăΰęļïňŋġ ψϊţħǿμţ πőōνįńģ. He uploaded photos of his dog, himself, and some trees. He was thinking about design and his own growing website project, Etsy.com.

"If the Internet was rock and roll, Flickr would most definitely be the Beatles. It changed everything."

"Eight years later and Flickr is still the only website I check on a daily basis", Jared says. "I enjoy looking at photographs from my friends, telling their stories one thousand words at a time. I explore the world through a million lenses. My own camera contributes a small part to the expedition. Sure, maybe I take too many photographs of rocks or clouds, but I am also telling my own story of life on Earth."

"I am honored to be included in Flickr’s eight year anniversary. I’m going to go grab my camera now and hope for another eight."

And with that, here are Jared’s eight favorite photos:

"What planet are we on again?"

"One great space science photograph and all my troubles seem to fade away. Don’t forget that these photographs can be viewed at over 5000 pixels wide!"

"This computational artifact unfolds into our reality with beauty and mystery."

"The best kind of photograph."

"Holger Lippmann is one of my favorite people to follow on Flickr. He is continually updating with new algorithmically generated work. I’m happy Flickr decided to allow images generated from sources other than a camera."

"I can solve any problem looking at this photograph. Thank you YoungDoo."

"I don’t know Monique, but I feel like I do. She takes amazing photographs from around the world, with particular interest in small common multiples. I love small common multiples, forever."

"I love these two people (both sides of the lens) and all the Flickr team."

Thank you Jared for sharing your story! Please stay tuned for our next episode.

Photos from jared, Alexander Semenov, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, Syntopia, 0olong, HolgerLippmann (work in process), youngdoo, M00k, and Stewart.