This hill is ubiquitous, but surprisingly difficult to locate in reality.
The imaginary default Windows XP wallpaper of a green hill sloping under a bright blue sky is one of the most viewed photos in the world, but its generic pleasure has long hindered Internet users about its real-world location – with some I think it’s not a real photo.
The editor-in-chief of SFGate recently set out to find the earthly subject of the computer background and found it covered in wine grapes, across from an alpine farm and Highway 12 in Sonoma, California.
The photo even has an incredible background story: Charles O’Rear has now snapped the legendary photo of what is known as “Bliss” Hill as he drove to see his wife now on a Friday afternoon. since January 1996.
“Most of the people who saw that photo, billions of people, thought it wasn’t a real photo,” O’Rear said. “Driving through the Sonoma hills in January always gets a carpet of green grass, it’s beautiful. I knew that and it was just the perfect light, the perfect clouds. “
O’Rear, 79, uploaded the photo to a photo agency. When Microsoft discovered O’Rear’s shot, the company paid an unknown but six-figure sum for its rights in perpetuity and quickly plastered it around the globe as part of a $ 1 billion marketing campaign.
Despite O’Rear’s proliferation of photography careers for the Los Angeles Times, The Kansas City Star and, for more than two decades, for National Geographic, he is well aware that his ubiquitous image of Bliss Hill will be what what he is reminded of.
“After 25 years of photographing at National Geographic, Geographic will not be mentioned on the tombstone,” he told the publication.
Despite the ubiquity and fame that the image brought him – he says “not a week goes by in which there are emails about that photo” – the legacy of the technology company did not buy him loyalty.
“I clung to Apple,” he said.
