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.
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.
While you’re taking a trip down the memory lane of tech, here’s the story of the World Wide Web.
Oh i thought it came from the Teletubbies.
I totally thought that was a photoshopped image. Good to see someone made a decent dollar off a fine photograph!
Never liked it anyways… always found it uninspiring, lazy, and unoriginal.
“Social” networks? Who are you promoting?
http://wp.me/p1Mrnd-2H
the Bozo.
Crisp image huh? As far as I can recall, the image had a max. resolution of 1024×768, in the late years of Windows XP the native resolution of most screens was way above 1280×800 so it was always stretched out, pixelated et al.
Its crazy that the photo wasn’t digitally enhanced at all, because it sure looks like it was at least a little. But, there were other ways to edit an image back then.
Dude does seem to know what the deal is. Wow, that makes a lot of sense.
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I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://alturl.com/eydi7
http://www.lovetoshopping.org
jlj
It looks so weird to see it like that!
http://www.lovetoshopping.org
bbn
These images tell a sad story about the impact of commercial farming on nature. The second photo was taken from the same spot, but it would also have to be taken at the same time on the same date to give a fair portrayal of the changes.
I actually read the whole article, how sad.
Mari (:
The picture was so perfect that I used to think it was made on computer !
I’ve driven through the Palouse in eastern WA in the spring and it looks just like this.
no, actually i never wondered where it came from
no, actually i never wondered where it came from
no, actually i never wondered where it came from
no, actually i never wondered where it came from
Impact of commercial farming on nature??? Look at the original image, it was ALWAYS farmed, you can see the remants of furrows and irrigation. In “nature” it would never have looked as uniform as it does in the screensaver image. What you believe to be an image of pristine land untouched by man is actually DUE to the impact of man….Not that man cannot in general be destructive to land but one must see it for what it is not what wants it to be.
Impact of commercial farming on nature??? Look at the original image, it was ALWAYS farmed, you can see the remants of furrows and irrigation. In “nature” it would never have looked as uniform as it does in the screensaver image. What you believe to be an image of pristine land untouched by man is actually DUE to the impact of man….Not that man cannot in general be destructive to land but one must see it for what it is not what wants it to be.
I always thought the picture came from the movie, “Toys” with Robin Williams!
Great to see that my Dutch article “Bliss. De meest bekeken foto aller tijden.” inspired you to use its outline and parts of its content in your post. http://jwvanwessel.wordpress.com/
Great to see that my Dutch article “Bliss. De meest bekeken foto aller tijden.” inspired you to use its outline and parts of its content in your post. http://jwvanwessel.wordpress.com/
This is amazing. I really thought it was just surreal.
This is amazing. I really thought it was just surreal.
Your updated photos hardly do the area justice. I live about 8 miles from that spot, and here is a photo I took of an area that is just steps away from that location and it’s much more typical of what you see when you’re there: http://bit.ly/pz9w0f
I don’t even know Dutch, but I can see the glaring similarities even despite the language barrier.
Why no attribution, Nancy? ‘Adaptation’ would be the generous way of describing it, but there are less happy words for the practice, too.
Why no attribution, Nancy? ‘Adaptation’ would be the generous way of describing it, but there are less happy words for the practice, too.
If I’m not mistaken, that wallpaper is called “Alentejo” (a region of Portugal) in Portuguese :)
I prefer to use my own hi-res Hill Country images for wallpaper. Windows doesn’t have anything I’d really want to use.
She was *nice* enough to give him credit for having “found the exact coordinates”. @Nick Johnson
What’s dreary about the recent picture? You took it in autumn when the leaves have finished turning. I bet it was BEAUTIFUL just a month or even a couple of weeks before the picture was taken when all the leaves were different colors. And even in the photo the landscape isn’t “dreary”. If the original photo were taken a week prior or two weeks after it would’ve looke far drearier. The photographer took the photo in the very rare window of time when the grass is actually green. The rest of the year the grass would be yellow or dead. It’s all about timing!
How much did you pay for the right to publish the image on your blog? :-D
She owes you an apology. That was an example of shameful journalism.
Unbelievable!
mind = blown
@Glenn Tillema Agreed it looks very much like the outside locations used in “Toys” which it seems was filmed in California (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105629/), so I guess it’s the same sort of countryside and crops if not exactly the same field/hillside
What a great story! Thanks for sharing! Bliss has always been one of my favourite desktops. Actually, I miss it now that I’m running 7.