[27] Intro to OSINT Episode 2: Geolocation and visual analysis.
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- Back with another OSINT story and challenge! There are two challenges to this weeks photo:
1. The building with the red arrow
2. The site the photo was taken from
The thread this episode was based on:
/ 1239306776153071618
A high res version of this weeks challenge:
drive.google.com/file/d/1hgej...
![[29] Intro to OSINT Episode 3: Reverse Image Search](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/F_BdgHsaZws/mqdefault.jpg)
![[29] Intro to OSINT Episode 3: Reverse Image Search](/img/tr.png)
I could tell it was a city in the south/Southeast from the trees and geography. First checked Atlanta in Google maps, but the skyline didn’t match. Went to Charlotte next and knew it was the right city. Oriented myself to the skyline first, then scanned satellite view until I saw an area that matched the rooftops and the bend in the road. After finding the location the photo was taken from, I triangulated the angle between the tallest skyscraper on the left and the red arrow building. I drew a line from where the picture was taken from and it landed about two blocks from the Arlington Condos.
educative video, thank you!
This one was a little harder. Eventually found out that it was Charlotte (I am not from USA so first searched USA skylines). Tried to orientate myself on a highway near the duke energy center after that rotated to the building with the red arrow and then went to other way to find the place where the picture was taken. Complete all your videos in one evening thanks for the content you earned a subscriber.
That on is harder... Reverse looked up the image, found the exact same picture on a drone footage website. Got the address from there. Used google maps to see where that main city is located compared to the business. South-East. Now comparing to the picture, judging by the perspective, the building is located South / South-West of the main downtown. Now, it's just a matter of Google/satellite view search for it.
I googled "america high rise building with hole". the second hit gave me the city.
The rest was google maps 3d.
The picture was take at 35°14'51.0"N 80°52'52.1"W
And the building is 35°13'01.8"N 80°51'09.1"W
A lot of people did that using a reverse image search. I recognized the Charlotte skyline, and then used Google's 3D satellite view to narrow it down to the Arlington Condos. Then I moved back to a distance that seemed appropriate, and realized the view had to have been aerial, because there are no buildings tall enough to see over the trees in that part of Charlotte. I wasn't considering published drone footage, but I guessed that the photo was taken on approach to the airport, and the address on Parkside Drive lines up with Runway 23 pretty closely.
Reversed image searched let me find the exact photo used for the challenge - captured by drone by a company called Dronegenuity. The photo was taken at 3201 Parkside Dr. Charlotte, NC. Finding the building highlighted by the red area was a combo of 3D map view facing the downtown area and a quick cross reference search of tallest buildings in Charlotte. I believe the building is "The Arlington" building @ 315 Arlington Ave.
Ding Ding Ding!!!
A little late, but here goes:
First, I started with the blue semi trailers, got nowhere, so did a Google Reverse Image Search. The image search gave me a drone services website for Charlotte/Raleigh/Durham, and the photo was on the home page.
I grabbed the element info for this photo and it said “drone photo of commercial facility outside of Charlotte, North Carolina with city skyline in background”. So now I know which city, I just have to figure out the skyline. Luckily, the wiki for downtown Charlotte allowed me to figure out the Duke Energy Center and the Wells Fargo building, so it was fairly easy to orient myself at that point.
Since the building is to the right of the Duke Energy Center, I used phorio and the Skyscraper page to find tall buildings that aren't part of the downtown. The only single building that fit was the Arlington.
To make sure that I was right (or at least close), I checked back with the wiki page which listed the Arlington is the tallest building outside of downtown Charlotte, so that was my guess.
Love these, and I'm now a subscriber!
i’ve used similar tricks to find filming tv locations: recommended practice. 👍
Found it a bit harder than the last one, but in the end not that difficult. I looked up North American skylines on google. There are a couple of websites, where they rank skylines. Looked through them until I found one with the right buildings. From there it was easy. I looked up the skyline on google maps and rotated it the way it’s shown on the image. The marked building is easily identifiable. Then I just looked for warehouse roofs arranged in the same way as the ones in the image and confirmed it with some of the details. Found one warehouse that belongs to a company called Blue Linx, which matches the two blue trailers in the image, so that pretty much confirmed it.
Red Arrow: 35°13'02.2"N 80°51'09.2"W
Location of the warehouses: 35°14'51.5"N 80°52'52.2"W
The point where the photo is taken is around 35.2473467,-80.8811912. But higher. There is no tall building there, so it must be drone footage.
I found this by a google search of skyscrapers. I identified the 2 largest buildings as the Duke Enery Center and the Bank Of America corporate office, in Charlotte NC.
Google search of blue trucks didn't find anything, so i resorted to using satelite image to find the distinct roof layout and the color of the buildings on the right of the photo.
From there, i measured the distance between the buildings and drew a line on the map.
On that line, i found the Arlington building.
I studied the blue trailer which had a vague depiction of a two letter word and a logo of a large x
I typed “Distribution company with blue freight trailers” and the third result was BlueLinx.com
I image searched Bluelinx and found the same type of trailer
I then google mapped Bluelinx locations and scrolled through satellite views until i matched the rooftop of the building (and adjacent structures), which told me it was Charlotte, NC.
Then to be honest i kinda got frustrated and busy at work while doing this and gave up to see if i was at least close and come to find out i was.
How cool
Used reverse image search, first image that pops up has the blue trailers.
www.dronegenuity.com/aerial-photography/north-carolina/charlotte-nc-28208/
This brings us to 3201 Parkside Dr, which I verified was the location in Google maps.
Next, I used the 3D feature on Google Maps to figure out the location and angle from which the picture was taken out from. I then matched the building with the picture with my Google Maps view. The building has a very distinct view and is distanced from the main group of highrise buildings, which made it pretty easy.
All I had to do was go to the building, and find the address.
Which is 301 Arlington Avenue.
Used google images to find exact location of drone company. From there I used google 3d to get to the point of view from your photo and then just scrolled in on the building. 315 Arlington Ave
1. The trees and landscape looked like the east coast USA to me. I ran a google search for city skylines in the USA. It looked close to Charlotte, North Carolina.
2. Without much more info from the photo, I got lazy and did a reverse Google search of the picture. Found this site with the same picture, www.dronegenuity.com/aerial-photography/north-carolina/
3. There is high probability that the pictures on their site were taken near Charlotte. I searched their site for an address, but instead found "Examples in Charlotte" with this picture listed under "Lakewood."
4. Searched Lakewood on Google Maps. It's a small section so I easily found the location the picture was taken. Parkside Dr, Charlotte, NC 28208 (35.247500, -80.881608)
5. I then used street view on Google Maps to triangulate the location of the tall building. The Arlington, 315 Arlington Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203. (35.217080, -80.852164)
I could have skipped the first step, but I wanted to see if I could get close just going by landscape and trees.
Building is The Arlington Condos taken from 3201 Parkside Dr., Charlotte, NC 28208
You got it first! Impressive!
TheNotSoCivilEngr sorry didn’t know it was requested! I used a reverse image search and was led to a drone photography company site. I used the listed address to orient toward the city skyline and found the correct lonely tall building. Thanks for another great post!
TheNotSoCivilEngr lucked out on seeing post a few minutes after upload too.
WTF?! How do y'all find this shit?!