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> "I have a very weird hobby, which is I love taking a look at photos and figuring out where they're taken." Sometimes you have the right person in the right p

> "I have a very weird hobby, which is I love taking a look at photos and figuring out where they're taken." Sometimes you have the right person in the right place at the right time. I'm also really interested in learning more about how this person pinpointed the hiker.

aaron-santos 6y ago
If you want to approximate it, play GeoGuessr with the self-imposed restrictions of no movement, no rotations. Obvs GeoGuessr primarily has road shots, but if you spend enough time at it, you will find it is a skill that can be improved.
- redler 6y ago
  There's also a subreddit for this sort of thing — r/whereisthis.
- schoen 6y ago
  For non-players, the "self-imposed restrictions" are actively enforced by the UI if you choose to request them. The most restrictive category is "no moving, panning, or zooming", abbreviated "NMPZ", in which you must guess your location from a single still Street View image. If you search for "NMPZ" on YouTube, you'll see that some people have become very very good at this (!).
- flycaliguy 6y ago
  You can also sit on the couch while your spouse watches House Hunter’s International and try to find the apartments as they go.
ytpete 6y ago
It's a surprisingly fun "game"! I've been on a quest to geotag all my older photos, from digital cameras without GPS. It's a great combination of a trip down memory lane – what do I remember about where I was when I took some photo on a trip, or back in college? – plus playing the role of a satellite spy-photo analyst.
alfiedotwtf 6y ago
You could imagine that skill would be prized at somewhere like the CIA
- bellyfullofbac 6y ago
  If I were CIA I'd just ask for (or I already have) all street view imagery from Google and run an image search. Even if it's Yandex (Russian) Street View, the CIA should have the resources to download them..
  - alfiedotwtf 6y ago
    Lol... I don't think they'd have all cliff face imagery :)
  - CamperBob2 6y ago
    It's not about the ability to identify an address, it's about the talent that makes you much better at that than most people are.
jonah 6y ago
Ben explains his methods here: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253

aaron-santos 6y ago

If you want to approximate it, play GeoGuessr with the self-imposed restrictions of no movement, no rotations. Obvs GeoGuessr primarily has road shots, but if you spend enough time at it, you will find it is a skill that can be improved.

redler 6y ago
There's also a subreddit for this sort of thing — r/whereisthis.
schoen 6y ago
For non-players, the "self-imposed restrictions" are actively enforced by the UI if you choose to request them. The most restrictive category is "no moving, panning, or zooming", abbreviated "NMPZ", in which you must guess your location from a single still Street View image. If you search for "NMPZ" on YouTube, you'll see that some people have become very very good at this (!).
flycaliguy 6y ago
You can also sit on the couch while your spouse watches House Hunter’s International and try to find the apartments as they go.

ytpete 6y ago

It's a surprisingly fun "game"! I've been on a quest to geotag all my older photos, from digital cameras without GPS. It's a great combination of a trip down memory lane – what do I remember about where I was when I took some photo on a trip, or back in college? – plus playing the role of a satellite spy-photo analyst.

alfiedotwtf 6y ago

You could imagine that skill would be prized at somewhere like the CIA

bellyfullofbac 6y ago
If I were CIA I'd just ask for (or I already have) all street view imagery from Google and run an image search. Even if it's Yandex (Russian) Street View, the CIA should have the resources to download them..
- alfiedotwtf 6y ago
  Lol... I don't think they'd have all cliff face imagery :)
- CamperBob2 6y ago
  It's not about the ability to identify an address, it's about the talent that makes you much better at that than most people are.

jonah 6y ago

Ben explains his methods here: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253