Microsoft XP wallpaper hills have been located

Some photographs are so ubiquitous that it is hard to imagine that they were taken by an ordinary boring old human being before being used in product designs or ad campaigns so huge that they are impossible to avoid. One of these photos is the default background for Windows XP—A photo of a green hill and a pleasant blue sky taken on what looks like a pleasant summer day. In the end, this photo (titled “Bliss”) was taken by a normal guy who just thought that a cute hill in Sonama, Calif. Was worth filming.

The Chronicle of San Franciscoof SFGATE tracked down Charles O’Rear, the photographer in question, to ask what it’s like to be responsible for such a famous image – and to provide a pretty depressing update on what the picturesque green hill looks like now. O’Rear says he regularly passed the hill in the mid-90s to visit the woman who is now his wife. He worked as a photographer, shooting for newspapers and National Geographic, but knows he will be remembered for the photo he took on a Friday afternoon in 1996, which spent a few years in a photo gallery before being purchased by Microsoft for “an undisclosed sum but exorbitant ”.

“Bliss” seems so idyllic (or, we suppose, happy) that O’Rear says that “a majority of people who saw” he didn’t even think it was real. But he is. O’Rear knew the hill was often beautiful in January and took the photo there, capturing a sight that seems almost too perfect to exist. For those hoping to put down a USB stick filled with late ’90s Limewire downloads as a tribute to the hills, the article now describes it as home to a “noisy two-lane highway” and “countless rows of wine grapes ”-“ A great place to stop and admire it all. ”

Oh, and O’Rear “doesn’t use Windows and hasn’t been in a long time.” He prefers Apple computers.

Check all SFGATE history for more on O’Rear, “Bliss” and photos showing what Sonama’s spot looks like now.

[via Digg]

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