Christmas week, whether you celebrate or not, is often one punctuated by lots of downtime, so we’ve got some great reading and even better pictures to keep you busy through the weekend. And of course, we assume you’re taking some of that time to pick your three best D.C.-area photos to enter into our contest? Submissions close on midnight January 8 (and be mindful of our suggestion to make your Flickr account now and upload a few images, even if you aren’t ready to submit them to our contest group, because it can take a few days for Flickr to approve your account and make it viewable to the public — i.e. us!) Do you have questions about the contest or what you should enter? Ask us in the comments or at info [at] exposeddc.com.

• The Washington City Paper’s Louis Jacobson tells us what he considers the best photography exhibits in D.C. in 2013.
• Vivian Maier was a pioneering street photographer who became a household name when a couple of guys stumbled upon nearly her entire life’s work in 2007 and launched an immensely successful Kickstarter to film a movie about her. Now you can view her contact sheets online.
• Using tilt-shift to create “Tiny universes” made out of pictures of the big universe. This one is for the astro-nerds.
• A young Syrian photographer who freelanced for Reuters was killed while covering the fighting in Aleppo last week.
• Speaking of young Syrians, HIPA, a Dubai arts foundation, worked with child refugees in a Jordanian camp, giving them cameras and lessons on how to use photography as a form of communication. Incidentally, HIPA also runs a photography contest open to anyone in the world over 18 that closes on December 31, 2013, is free to enter, and offers nearly $400,000 in prize money.
• The headline “Photographer Finds Cockatiels, Jesus in NYC Basements” definitely had us clicking through.
• The famed horse track, where thoroughbreds like Seabiscuit and Citation once ran, has closed.
• A Washington, D.C. family poses for a Christmas portrait in 1918.
• We need every publication to start doing this: The New Yorker posts all the bizarro photos they dug up while doing research in 2013.
• You probably saw this link posted on Facebook by every photographer you know last week. These cheetsheets are even more beautiful than they are helpful.
• Looking to develop some film? Local Darkroom has what you need, wherever you might be.
• The only thing wrong with this photo gallery of Dominic the pit bull puppy cuddling animal patients as they come out of surgery is that we can’t reach through the screen and cuddle Dominic right back.
• A new book, Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk Of Lightning, takes a look at documentary photographer’s life.
• Well this is pretty terrible. A San Diego male tiger killed its mate while attempting to breed. If that’s not your cup of link tea, how about this photographer getting a scary view of a tiger shark with its jaws wide open.