Somewhere out in these curves, tucked into a good vantage on a tight corner, there's a photographer with a long lens and a folding chair — and they're taking your picture right now, whether you meant to pose or not. These are the Dragon photographers, and they're one of the great quirks of this road. The best-known outfit goes by Killboy, but there are several — names like 129 Photos and Moonshine Photo — staked out at the most dramatic corners. From about spring to fall, on any decent-weather day, they photograph every single vehicle that comes through: every bike leaned hard over, every sports car diving for the apex, hundreds of them, all day long.
Then comes the trick. When you're done, you pull over, you search the date and roughly the time you came through, and there you are — a crisp, professional action shot of you riding the Dragon, ready to buy on the spot. No setup, no posing, no missed shot; they caught you at your best without your ever knowing. It's become part of the whole ritual: you don't just ride the Dragon, you get the photo of yourself riding it. So sit up straight, take a clean line, and look like you meant it — because somewhere in these curves, you are most definitely on camera.
Photo: Hustvedt · CC BY-SA 3.0
