Plenty of links for your consumption this week. We have tragic photos from the massacre in Kenya, a photographer named a genius, a Leica store contest, animals loving humans, animals behaving like humans, and humans behaving like animals.

• Tyler Hicks of the New York Times entered the Westgate Mall in Nairobi after the shooting started last week. His interview and incredibly sad and terrifying images from that day are on the Times’ Lens blog. Warning, some of the images are graphic.
• “I don’t think of myself as a female photojournalist. I’m a photojournalist… an individual. Part of what I bring to the table is how I interact with my subjects and obviously being a woman may impact people’s responses to me.” Women Photojournalists of Washington President, Jacquelyn Martin’s interview on the NPPA blog.
• Fascinating animal photos from Mary Ellen Mark, they are part of a book that will be coming out next spring.
• The Washington, D.C. Leica store has announced a monthly photo contest, so if you shoot with a Leica go join their flickr pool. I’m hoping the Leica fairy brings me an M9.
• You can be a photography genius. Carrie Mae Weems has spent her long career exploring class, racism, gender roles and sexism. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship this week.
• When you are a grumpy old baseball fan you don’t care why someone is getting in the way of your view, you just want them to move. You may even go to great lengths, like flipping the bird in someone’s proposal photo.
• Exposed HQ is buzzing with the news that Steve Winters will be speaking at National Geographic in November to share images from his new book Tigers Forever. #Tigers4EVA
• If you are heading to Charlottesville, the Fralin Museum of Art at UVA is hosting two landscape photography exhibits. One is original work of Ansel Adams, the other is work from contemporary landscape photographers.
• Isn’t this part of the photographer ten commandments? Thou shall not steal another photographer’s photo and enter it in a contest. Yes, it is, right after thou shall not use HDR.
• The D.C. State Fair has announced the finalists in their photography contest. Winners will be announced at the fair tomorrow.
• The Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners have been announced. The images are beautiful, and a sad reminder that light pollution is taking away the night sky for those of us living in urban areas.
• And finally, historic photographs of animals doing funny things, including a chimp feeding a baby.