One of the easiest ways to strip metadata is to take a screenshot of the photo you are going to post.
The screen shot is just a picture of your picture, with no information attached to it.
What's in the background of the photo can give clues to it's location as well.
With the IROT picture, try downloading that picture, then upload it into google images. Sometimes you get a match.
By reading IROT's signature, searching it- you find the bragging site.
Knowing where someone is, what state or county, can start you in a good place to narrow it down.
Getting answers by analyzing a collection of tidbits.
For the base jumpers, I'm sure they posted who, where, when, and most likely had GoPros running. You can't jump off the towers without posting it to everyone. It would just take a little time to search out the location.