Huge thanks to Knowledge Commons DC and to each of our volunteer teachers – Samer Farha, Mukul Ranjan, Chris Williams, and Sarah Hodzic – for putting on our free photography classes this week! We hope to have another session for you soon. And to all of you who signed up for the classes, thank you and well done on nabbing a spot – they were in high demand! If you’re proud of any of the photos you shot during one of the classes, please consider entering them in our 10th annual contest which opens in just a couple of weeks. Now for the links you’ve been waiting for:

• White House photography editor and photojournalist Rick McKay died this week at his home in Virginia. President Obama offered a tribute to his work.
• Regular Flickr contributor Tony Quinn‘s photographs from 1983 bear witness to Team America – D.C.’s short-lived, oft-forgotten soccer club.
• In a curious move, Reuters has banned its photographers from submitting images edited from RAW files, it says, to save time and prevent egregious editing.
• “Photographing the daily life of Muslims in Paris is a challenge. I discovered this by throwing myself into the project, which rapidly became a story of failed encounters, rejection and disappointment.” Photos and words by Reuters photographer Youssef Boudlal.
• Police in body armor showed up at an office building in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after someone called 911 to report a gunman holding a machine gun. Turns out it was a photographer holding a tripod.
• “Over 96 percent of pro photographers surveyed don’t regularly register their copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office despite nearly unanimous (99 percent) agreement with the statement that copyright protection is an important aspect of their careers.”
• James and Karla Murray’s Store Front photography books capture a disappearing world: New York’s small stores and their unique and precious aesthetics.
• It’s gift buying season. Maybe someone you know needs one of these books on digital photography for beginners?
• One of the more complex concepts for photographers, especially beginners, is the relationship between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Photoblog Hamburg has a simple but clever infographic explaining how they all work.
• See Mexican photographer Jesús Jiménez’s images of currency at the Organization of American States through January 15.
• A small-town farmer traces his lineage to a 19th-century African prince who was enslaved and taken to work in the silver mines of Bolivia.
• Laura Husar Garcia’s Beyond the Veil examines the rarely asked question about what happens to nuns after they retire.
• To mark the 20th anniversary of the Dayton agreement, which brought an end to the Bosnian war, photographers Stéphanie Borcard and Nicolas Métraux have captured the divisions, the dark clouds and the young hope there today.
• Stray cats steal the spotlight from world leaders at the G20 Summit in Turkey. [Video]