Pony Close-Up: Photography Day at Santa Anita

Gain "unprecedented access" to the horses of the historic park.

Are you ever somewhere, say, at a major attraction or destination, and you hold up your camera to snap a great picture, only to see twenty phones and cameras and recording devices in your immediate vicinity, all attempting to get pretty much the same snapshot you want?

Yep, it is a modern phenomenon, one that grows more modern with the ever-ubiquity of cameras in our hip pockets. But sometimes a shutterbug is looking for a more unique photograph, something that brings the viewer a bit closer to the subject, a fabulous composition that might just be suitable for a frame.

Enter Photography Day. A few Southern California institutions known for housing some truly beautiful denizens -- we're looking at you, Aquarium of the Pacific -- have started opening their doors on specific days to the camera-wielding set, all for the purpose of helpoing people take some great close-up shots.

Santa Anita Park is next up on the "come-and-click-closer" roster. The Arcadia landmark's Photography Day is set for Friday, Jan. 10, and photographers "of all skill levels" will be given "unprecedented access to Thoroughbred workouts and the paddock areas to capture that perfect moment."

Nice. And, true, you'll likely be shoulder-to-shoulder with other Photography Day attendees, but count on leaving the park with some stunners, photo stories told from new vantages and pony-close points of view.

You'll hear track photographers chat up what they do, and you'll nab breakfast, too, at Clocker's Corner. And for twenty five bucks, day of? With parking? Yeah, there's a reason Photography Days are getting so dang popular at the places where gorgeous animals run and swim and frolic.

Drawing nearer, camera in hand, always provides something a little more interesting than a quick 'n blurry snap taken from hundreds of yards away.

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