In case you missed it, we decided to extend our contest all the way to February 28. That gives you plenty of time to send us your best images of life in the D.C. region and increase your chances of being part of our annual show at Dupont Underground in May.

We have a lot of great events in the meantime! Join us for our January happy hour this Tuesday at Board Room. Then on Friday, February 2, we’re opening a new exhibit at the Crystal City Fotowalk! You can see the exhibit up now anytime, but we hope you’ll join us for a glass of wine and meet the talented photographers we’re featuring in this round.

On to Friday Links!

• “The Wonder People” exhibit opens today at the Glen Echo Photoworks Gallery and runs through Feb. 25 with a reception and gallery talk this Sunday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The exhibit features Dorte Verner’s portraits of refugees from around the world.
• Register to attend a photography exhibit, reception, and conversation on the impact of photojournalism and creative storytelling on policy at Johns Hopkins SAIS on Feb. 1. Free to attend.
• Head to the opening of “You, if no one else,” the Arlington Arts Center’s winter group exhibition, including photography by Danielle A. Scruggs among other artworks. Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m.
• National Geographic photographer illustrates glacial retreat by making long exposures while carrying a torch along the glacier’s former boundaries.
• After the New York Times revealed the extent of sexual harassment by fashion photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino, publisher Condé Nast cut ties with them and created a code of conduct to protect its models during shoots.
• A former Department of Energy photographer has filed a federal whistleblower suit stating that he was fired after leaking photos of Rick Perry meeting with the CEO of Murray Energy.
• This one is for all you Star Wars geeks.
• The New Yorker profiles photographer/filmmaker Khalik Allah and his images of Harlem at night that “have a spiritual essence, an element of passion and grace.”
• Christopher Payne’s photo essay on one of America’s last remaining pencil factories may cause unexpected feelings of nostalgia.

Have you entered our annual photo contest yet? You have until January 11 to submit your images that show the life and culture of Washington, D.C. and the metro area. We’ll be announcing more exciting details about this year’s show soon—make sure you’re a part of it! And now on to Friday Links:

• Capital Weather Gang shared their 5 favorite weather photos from last year.
• Scroll back to all those garden beauty shots you took last spring and enter them into Washington Gardener Magazine’s 12th annual photo contest before January 22.
• Sign your high schooler up for Photography for Teens at The Art League, an eight-session class starting January 21.
• Aerial photographer Mark Holtzman talked to the Atlantic about how he took this photo of a B-2 stealth bomber over the Rose Bowl.
• Pacific Standard features Anthony Carbajal, a 28-year-old with ALS who decided to use his photography skills to find hope.
• Go see the finalists of the Air & Space / Smithsonian photo contest and vote for your favorite to get a Readers’ Choice prize before January 14.
• Photography exhibition documents the immigrant experience from the 1860s through 2015. On view at Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York until Jan. 27.
• Senior writer for Adorama Learning Center shares five digital photography technology predictions for 2018.
• From 1893 to 1897, Carl Størmer used a hidden camera to photograph life in Oslo, Norway while attending university.

Take some of your holiday time off to enter our 12th annual photo contest. Show us what you love about living in the D.C. area. And now, enjoy our last Friday Links of the year. See you in 2018!

• Every publication is pushing out their end-of-year lists, so get your fill of 2017’s best photography at the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, TIME magazine, and Getty photographers.
• Annie Leibovitz is offering her first-ever online photography course.
• The Museum of Selfies opens in Los Angeles this January, but at least the organizers seem to have a sense of humor about it.
• Engineers at Dartmouth claim to have made a breakthrough in imaging sensor technology for high-quality, low-light photography.
• The late actor Anton Yelchin turned out to be quite the secret photographer. See his work in W Magazine or in a new exhibit in Chelsea through January 20.
• In Houston Aristocracy v. Instagrammers, the score is currently 0-1.
• ICYMI: This look into the life of renowned art bookmaker Gerhard Steidl from May made Longreads’ best profiles of the year list. Steidl “summons the world’s most influential artists and photographers to his workshop for days of emotional terrorism in service of books that are, in the words of photographer Edward Burtynsky, ‘the haute couture of printing.’ Depending on how you read [the profile], it’s an artistic fairy tale, a psychological horror movie, or some kind of thrilling fusion of the two.”

Our annual photo contest is open! You don’t want to miss this chance to be part of our celebration of life in D.C. with our spring exhibit. This is our 12th year, so get ready for some surprises. Find all the information here, and show us your best shots.

• Today, Glen Echo Photoworks Gallery opens its third annual exhibit from their regular Coffee & Critique members. Join them for a reception this Sunday, 4 to 6 p.m. They’re also offering holiday portraits with your family this Saturday for a donation to the gallery.
• Berlin-based photography team Billy and Hells created the emotional portraits that accompany Time magazine’s Person of the Year issue, featuring “The Silence Breakers” who spoke out about sexual harassment this year.
• Los Angeles Times staff photographer Marcus Yam captured the devastation of the Southern California wildfires this week in one iconic image.
• Let’s get the end-of-year lists started with The Atlantic’s top 25 news photos of 2017.
• Photographer Amy Davis shows how Baltimore’s theaters have changed over the decades.
• Norwich University of the Arts looks to reinvent the traditional photography degree with a focus on individuality and creating a visual voice.
• Photographer provides rural Cambodian villagers with first portraits of themselves through the charity, My First Selfie.
• Émile Zola, best known as an author, also spent the last eight years of his life obsessed with photography and was taking his own selfies back around 1900.

Join us for our November happy hour at Free State next Thursday, 6 p.m. Photographers and friends all welcome, and perhaps you’ll be able to tell us about some good exhibits you’ve seen recently because…

• FotoweekDC kicks off tonight! Head to the opening party and see the contest winners at FotoWeek Central, then search their calendar by location or daily events for more exhibits, discussions, workshops, photo walks, and parties than you could possibly cram into just one week.
• Go support two local photographers, Jessica Del Vecchio and Chris Williams, with their annual Art for Turkeys fundraiser: You’ll get six small photography prints for a donation of $32 or more to Bread for the City to provide holiday dinners.
• “Dereliction” by photographer Cedric Williams opens at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown on November 11 with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m.
• The New York Times is in D.C. next week to hold a discussion with some of their Pulitzer-winning photojournalists at the Dupont Underground. Thursday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. $15-20.
• Enter the international Wiki Science photography competition by the end of November. The U.S. part of the contest is being organized by Wikimedia District of Columbia.
• Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards aim to raise awareness about wildlife conservation efforts if you can stop laughing long enough first.
• Conservation photographers, filmmakers, scientists, and more will be meeting in D.C. on Nov. 14 and 15 at WildSpeak, a symposium to explore how visual media can contribute to impactful science communications and conservation efforts.
• “The vultures were so charming,” says photographer Traer Scott, who visited owls, kestrels, and other birds in rehabilitation centers for her new book, Raptors: Portraits of Birds of Prey.
• This probably isn’t news to our readers, but Pete Souza’s latest book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, with an introduction by the President himself, was released this week. You’ll have to cruise Craigslist for tickets to Souza’s sold out talk at Sixth & I next Monday.