This hill is ubiquitous but surprisingly difficult to locate in reality.
The iconic Windows XP default desktop wallpaper of a sloping green hill under a bright blue sky is one of the most viewed photos in the world, but its generic pleasantness has long surpassed Internet dwellers by as for its location in the real world, with some believing it is not a real photograph.
The editor-in-chief of SFGate recently set about finding the earthly subject of computer history and discovered it covered in wine grapes, across the street from an alpaca farm and Highway 12 in Sonoma, California.
The photo even has an amazing story: Charles O’Rear shot the now legendary except for what is known as “Bliss” hill while driving to see his now wife on a Friday afternoon in January 1996.
“Most of the people who saw this photograph, billions of people, thought it wasn’t a real photograph,” O’Rear said. “Driving through the hills of Sonoma in January always gets a carpet of green grass, it’s beautiful. I knew it and it was just the perfect light, the perfect clouds. ”
O’Rear, 79, uploaded the photo to a stock photography agency. When Microsoft discovered O’Rear’s shot, the company paid an unknown but six-figure sum for its perpetual rights and quickly plunged it around the world as part of a marketing campaign. $ 1 billion.
Despite O’Rear’s prolific photographic career in the Los Angeles Times, The Kansas City Star and, for more than two decades, in National Geographic, he is well aware that his ubiquitous image of Bliss Hill will be what he remembers.
“After 25 years photographing at National Geographic, Geographic will not be mentioned on my headstone,” he told the publication.
Despite the ubiquity and fame that the image has brought him (he says “not a week goes by that some email comes out about this photograph”), the fact of having his legacy tied to the tech company did not make him loyal.
“I got hooked on Apple,” he said.
