At the very top of the page is the ling to Blogs... You can only have 1 blog, per member. Although you can start categories within the blog...
As far as starting a new one, you should find the link to the right of the main blog screen - scroll down.. My link isn't there anymore, since i started my blog already...
As far as pics, if you are talking about pics that were attachments or in the old Gauge Gallery - Peter is working on that. We'll have to see how many re-appear, but you might have to upload them again and any "links" you have will have to be re-linked to the new pics.....