FBI tracked me because of photo: Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News... The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a...

Calsnap Loc: Seattle/Montana/San Diego

Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News...

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

(This is an excerpt, the whole story is here...)

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fbi-tracked-me-down-because-of-one-photo-i-took-2014-7

riverlass Loc: northern California

I think this might be about something else. I'm no FBI agent but the first thing I notice about you is that you have a home in Sacramento but you say (in your info) that you are from Seattle, Montana and San Diego. That's a lot of moving around and a lot of homes.
Maybe it was something you said to them, or something on you phone... or Facebook or Twitter, or... who knows. They monitor everything these days. I don't know. Something has put you on their alert list.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

riverlass wrote:

I think this might be about something else. I'm no FBI agent but the first thing I notice about you is that you have a home in Sacramento but you say (in your info) that you are from Seattle, Montana and San Diego. That's a lot of moving around and a lot of homes.
Maybe it was something you said to them, or something on you phone... or Facebook or Twitter, or... who knows. They monitor everything these days. I don't know. Something has put you on their alert list.

Yes, better to error on the side of safety than to not look into the matter at all.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

riverlass wrote:

I think this might be about something else. I'm no FBI agent but the first thing I notice about you is that you have a home in Sacramento but you say (in your info) that you are from Seattle, Montana and San Diego. That's a lot of moving around and a lot of homes.
Maybe it was something you said to them, or something on you phone... or Facebook or Twitter, or... who knows. They monitor everything these days. I don't know. Something has put you on their alert list.

The UHH member posting the excerpt from and link to article and the person referred to in the story are two different people, I do believe.

As for the idea that this might be about something else, this is from the article:

"When I called Agent Ayaz, he asked if I had been in Boston recently. At that moment I realized that the security guards at the Rainbow Swash site must have taken down the rental car license plate number and reported me to a law enforcement agency. I never gave the guards any information about myself, so I must have been traced across country via my rental car record."

Mike

riverlass Loc: northern California

Blenheim Orange wrote:

The UHH member posting the excerpt from and link to article and the person referred to in the story are two different people, I do believe.

Mike

I think you might be right.

ArtzDarkroom Loc: Near Disneyland-Orange County, California

FYI Calsnap,

FBI technology to track photo's origins and other uses is available to ALL of us by using Google Image search. If you are a Mac user then you are probably familiar with iPhoto's ability to find similar faces. Come to think of it, Facebook has that ability too. Welcome to the 21st Century. lol

Calsnap wrote:

Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News...

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

(This is an excerpt, the whole story is here...)

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fbi-tracked-me-down-because-of-one-photo-i-took-2014-7

Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News...... (show quote)

Calsnap Loc: Seattle/Montana/San Diego

riverlass wrote:

I think this might be about something else. I'm no FBI agent but the first thing I notice about you is that you have a home in Sacramento but you say (in your info) that you are from Seattle, Montana and San Diego. That's a lot of moving around and a lot of homes.
Maybe it was something you said to them, or something on you phone... or Facebook or Twitter, or... who knows. They monitor everything these days. I don't know. Something has put you on their alert list.

I tried to make it clear that this was from an article I saw and included a link to it. As for the "homes", yes it is a lot of homes and I like them all, (excluding Sacramento, which isn't me, it's the guy who wrote the article)

Calsnap Loc: Seattle/Montana/San Diego

[quote=Blenheim Orange]The UHH member posting the excerpt from and link to article and the person referred to in the story are two different people, I do believe.

As for the idea that this might be about something else, this is from the article:

"When I called Agent Ayaz, he asked if I had been in Boston recently. At that moment I realized that the security guards at the Rainbow Swash site must have taken down the rental car license plate number and reported me to a law enforcement agency. I never gave the guards any information about myself, so I must have been traced across country via my rental car record."

Thanks for the clarification. I deleted that paragraph because I didn't think it added enough to justify increasing the length of the OP, obviously I should have left it in. I guess I thought people would follow the link to the whole story.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

riverlass Loc: northern California

Calsnap wrote:

I tried to make it clear that this was from an article I saw and included a link to it. As for the "homes", yes it is a lot of homes and I like them all, (excluding Sacramento, which isn't me, it's the guy who wrote the article)

Got ya!

gwr Loc: South Dartmouth, Ma.

Calsnap wrote:

Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News...

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

The Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent.

I went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture, I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I, being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property but they insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots for the entire world to see.

A few months later, I found a business card on the front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her neighbor.

So, consider this: A professional photographer taking a photo of a well-known Boston landmark is now considered to be engaged in suspicious terrorist activity?

(This is an excerpt, the whole story is here...)

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fbi-tracked-me-down-because-of-one-photo-i-took-2014-7

Here's a troubling story I took from Yahoo News...... (show quote)

the 9-11 terrorists initiated their attacks on connecting flights from Logan Airport in Boston. The Boston Marathon was bombed by radicalized muslim brothers. Martin Richards was a 9 year old boy (from Dorchester) who was murdered by the brothers. so yes, people from the area are on guard. if you are a professional photographer, you should've known to contact local authorities that you will be photographing a highly explosive area of the city. you may be an unlikely enemy of The United States but the same could be said for the tsarnov brothers. the family received over $100,000.00 in public assistance not to mention free college for the younger brother. I live just a couple miles from the university the younger brother attended. my back yard abuts a 152 acre nature preserve (my children play in these woods). the brothers used that preserve to test their explosives and the area was teeming w/ fbi agents after the attack. your actions raised red flags and im thrilled that people acted proactively. Gary

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

gwr wrote:

the 9-11 terrorists initiated their attacks on con... (show quote)

The OP is not talking about himself. He merely posted an article about another photographer, as the article as well as comments in this thread make clear.

You think taking photographs should "raise red flags?" Do you think that any and all people should be regarded as possible "enemies of the United States?"

Mike

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Related item is that I love taking photos of aircraft. At Fort Myers, a small city field ( Page Field ) has props to jets taking off and landing very near my home. I stopped in one day and inquired about coming to the public area outside their fence and taking photos around the end of two runways which would give me views of 4 possible take-off and landing areas. I was given the phone number to security and told as long as I was outside the fence to please give security a call as a courtesy to say I would be there and when I was leaving. No big deal to ask huh ?

Sarge69

gwr Loc: South Dartmouth, Ma.

Blenheim Orange wrote:

The OP is not talking about himself. He merely posted an article about another photographer, as the article as well as comments in this thread make clear.

You think taking photographs should "raise red flags?" Do you think that any and all people should be regarded as possible "enemies of the United States?"

Mike

photographing a liquefied natural gas tank in a city that has been attacked by terrorists will get you questioned by authorities. if in fact the photographer was a professional, he/she should know to get proper permits or at least give local authorities a heads up as a common courtesy. video and photography are being used by people who want to do harm to this country and its citizens.

gwr Loc: South Dartmouth, Ma.

[quote=sarge69]Related item is that I love taking photos of aircraft. At Fort Myers, a small city field ( Page Field ) has props to jets taking off and landing very near my home. I stopped in one day and inquired about coming to the public area outside their fence and taking photos around the end of two runways which would give me views of 4 possible take-off and landing areas. I was given the phone number to security and told as long as I was outside the fence to please give security a call as a courtesy to say I would be there and when I was leaving. No big deal to ask huh ?

there is a small airport near my house. prior to 9-11 we would go to an adjacent cemetery and get buzzed by the planes and take pictures. post 9-11 I wouldn't think of doing that w/out calling the airport. its just common courtesy, so that people, who inevitably will be called to investigate your presence there, wouldn't get hurt rushing over there.

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

gwr wrote:

photographing a liquefied natural gas tank in a city that has been attacked by terrorists will get you questioned by authorities. if in fact the photographer was a professional, he/she should know to get proper permits or at least give local authorities a heads up as a common courtesy. video and photography are being used by people who want to do harm to this country and its citizens.

Prior to the Marathon bombing, what terrorist attacks occurred in Boston? The photo in question was taken in 2004. The events in the article happened a decade ago.

Be afraid. Be very afraid...