Ever wonder where the very famous default Windows XP wallpaper which is called ‘bliss’ came from? It’s an interesting story, and I think you could impress people with some little known trivia about it.
Who created it is a great start? The original owner was a person by the name of Charles O’Rear. Despite what some people may think, it is not c computer generated image. It is a really a photo.
Apparently many think that the photo was taken in Ireland, but the photo was taken by Charles whilst driving through Napa and Sonoma counties in California on the side of the highway on his way to see his then girlfriend (now his wife).
For you budding photographers who would want to capture a shot of the hills and what they look like today, they are now home to a vineyard and apparently it is unsafe to stop where O’Rear did to take a photograph of the hills.
Another great piece of trivia to impress people would be to name the type of camera that took this photo – it was a hand held Mamiya RZ67.
Just how did Microsoft get hold of it? Charles had uploaded the photo to a stock photography agency (which Bill Gates actually started a few years earlier), and I guess the rest is history when it was discovered.
The photo that was taken on that day was pretty close to what you see on your Windows XP. All that was done was the left side was slightly cropped and the greens hills were made a little more vibrant in color (see below for a copy of the original)
image source: http://www.
Oh, one last piece of trivia to impress your friends – the photo was taken by Charles in January 1998.