Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from?
One of the most famous wallpaper images is undoubtedly the default
Windows XP image showing a blissfully relaxing vista of green rolling
hills and a bluer than blue sky. The wallpaper, probably one of the most
viewed images of all time, is aptly named ‘Bliss.’ Do a Google image
search for just the word ‘bliss,’ and the first result is the Windows
wallpaper.
For Dutch Windows users however, the name of the image is Ireland,
which has mistakenly led many to believe that that’s where the image was
taken.
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| BLISS |
Have you ever stopped to wonder where the image was taken, or who
took it? In fact, the image is so crisp you might have assumed it wasn’t
real at all.
The man behind the camera is American photographer Charles O’Rear.
Don’t let his name fool you into thinking that the photo was in fact
taken in Ireland. Bliss, as it turns out, is in California. In Sonoma
County to be exact.
The photo was taken in 1996, years before Windows XP launched, and
before the area was converted into a vineyard. In fact, a photo taken 10
years later from exactly the same spot where Bliss was shot, shows a
disappointingly, dreary view:
The image has since made its way off of users’ computer and can be
spotted in some of the most unexpected places. O’Rear himself has seen
the image in the window of a restaurant in a Thai village and in the
background of a TV interview with the Venezuelan president.
So how much did O’Rear get for taking what is considered one of the
most famous photos of all time? A non-disclosure agreement prevents him
from revealing the actual figure, but according to Napa Valley Register, O’Rear stated that it was:
“extraordinary” and second only to that paid to another
living, working photographer for the photo of then-President Bill
Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky.
Taken with a medium format camera, the most surprising fact about the
image is that O’Rear claims that it wasn’t digitally manipulated.
Either way, the present day reality is a far cry from the idyllic image that Windows abandoned with the advent of Windows Vista.
JW Van Wessel
found the exact coordinates of the location, and thanks to Google
Street View, you can get a 360 degree view of the area, and see exactly
how it looks today:
Behind where O’Rear stood, you can see more vineyards:
While to the left and right is little else but endless highways:
To give it a try yourself, just go to
Google Maps and enter the following coordinates: 38.248966, -122.410269.
Disclaimer : All the information is collected from different websites and sources.
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