Congratulations to Kim_in_CajunCountry and Liz AM for their epic tie in this months Flickr Picnikers Contest “Shape Up”! Both of them win a full year of Picnik Premium (now with enhanced Collage functionality!) for their efforts on “Birds on a Wire” and Liz AM’s mysteriously repopulated tree branches. And rachiie_, the runner up, gets a three month subscription for “blueberries”.

by Kim_in_CajunCountry	by Liz AM
by rachiie_

Carie Bauer, our seventh Featured Picniker, moved out of Kentucky looking for a place with amazing outdoors scenery with both mountains and ocean, but also with a thriving urban center that is both progressive and creative. So obviously she ended up in the Pacific Northwest, home as well to Picnik World Headquarters. A keen traveler, Carie has a photo stream on Flickr full of pictures of Mexico and the American Southwest, and would love to backpack across Europe and Latin America, and to visit Australia, Ireland and India, and travel through Japan, Prague, and Iceland. And maybe someday also Vietnam, Italy, Spain, Ethiopia and Dubai.

Arriving in Portland a few years ago to get her Master’s degree in Public Administration, Carie has focused her career on the nonprofit and public sector world, working with volunteers and interns in agencies primarily devoted to victims of crime and domestic violence. Keenly interested in leadership, advocacy, public policy design and civic engagement issues, Carie also volunteers herself at a local nonprofit agency where she offers her experience in program development to help begin a leadership academy for Latino youth.

Unless someday she decides to chuck it all in for a job working at Lonely Planet.

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This month’s contest theme, chosen by Brenda, our Community Liaison in Charge of Flickr Operations, has been for all the photos and creations using the various shapes available in the Create tab. Submissions are over and voting has started. The winner gets a free year of Picnik Premium, so go vote!

We’ve got another award coming to adorn that trophy case we still really need to get (walking by Jonathan’s filing cabinet these days is like taking your life into your own hands), this time from the Web Marketing Association, presenting us with a 2008 WebAward for “outstanding achievement in website development” and Best Photography Website! Hurrah! Quoting from the judges’ comments:

“Not only does the application work better than expected and certainly as well as promised, the overall site design is pleasant, well laid out, and thoughtful. Everything was easy to find, easy to read, and simple to use… Having judged many web sites this year I have not run across any I like more than this and that do what a web site should do better. Even the other two sites that I gave a 10 to are not this good. I am afraid the bar has just been raised on layout, design, and functionality…well done!”

And that’s not all! Last week we got a lovely trophy from Horizon Interactive, awarding us the bronze medal for best use of Flash.

And that’s not all! We had our biggest weekend ever this past weekend! We never get tired of hearing ourselves say that. Thanks to everyone for the recognition and thanks for using Picnik!

Here at Picnik, the election du jour (almost literally) is Harper v. Dion v. Duceppe v. Layton v. May! Which is why we’ve introduced some special Canadian shapes to help you all get in the Federal Electioneering mood. But act quickly, because unlike south of their border, Canadians can get an election over with in just thirty-seven days.

And for everyone else (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), we’ve got lovely new Fall shapes. And of course the American election shapes are still (still) up.

Photo courtesy of Bob Jagendorf

Another dose of the warm fuzzies via Kristi and Ali, our Picnik Community Therapists, from some of our users…

Bonjour, j’avais regardé picnik il y a déja plusieurs mois de cela, et tout d’un coup, Wow, une version francaise ET des fonctionalités encore plus riches !!! J’adore !! En plus c’est toujours aussi simple et intuitif d’utilisation, vraiment parfait ! :-) -Sylvie

Me and my older sister share an account. She is 19 years old and i am 12 years old. Picnik is so easy to use! It is so easy to use, that maybe a 6 year old could use it! Best of all, you don’t have to download anything! Thanks for making Picnik! -bluepolkadot09

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The days are getting shorter, there’s a briskness in the air, and the sun has finally come out: It’s the end of summer in Seattle. We must have Fall on the mind, and all of Fall’s attendant reminders of renewed responsibility (buying school supplies, investing in a winter wardrobe, those darned Christmas displays at Marshall’s), because the updates are coming fast and furious here at Picnik World Headquarters. Indeed, we’re happy to announce two new Effects in Picnik!

The first one is designed to mimic the effect first devised of one day by the photographer Mareen Fischinger as she stood on a bridge in Düsseldorf and began photographing everything in front of her in dozens of different angles, and then stitched them together afterwards on her computer. Said to more closely represent how the human eye pictures a scene than how a single camera shot does, the technique quickly took off on Flickr, with a group totally devoted to just panographs (indeed, as Mareen says, ” the effect panographic, and the result is a panograph, the whole thing is panography”).

The second one is Puzzle. And who doesn’t like Puzzles?

These two new features can be found in a new section inside the Effect tab called Featured Effects, and both are now only available for Picnik Premium users.

Since graduating from university and chucking in his 4-month European backpacking tour for 20 years in Japan, our sixth Featured Picniker has devoted himself to art, short film-making, nurturing relationships with the people he meets in his profession, and the varied and rewarding aspects of life that come with marriage and fatherhood. Paul Carr, native to Birmingham, England, has lived in Sataima, Japan, teaching high school English and developing his interests in multimedia and computer based education through his ESL video blog, and collecting a wife and child along the way. Recently, though, all that came to an end: One day last spring, perusing BBC online’s Webscape program, Paul discovered Picnik.

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New for the American campaign season is our snazzy new collection of campaign buttons! Whether Republican, Democrat, or Picnopublicrat, we’ve probably got a button you can wear with pride!

Top tip: Use with our amazing new Collage feature (now in Premium Preview!), add some text, and use to promote your next political cage match!