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For the curious, here is Red Moon Desert which, according to TFA, was almost used instead of Bliss but was rejected for looking too much like buttocks: https://windowswallpaper.miraheze.org/wiki/Red_moon_desert
I didn't know where it was taken, until I accidentally found myself there! https://www.simoncross.com/p/that-day-i-accidentally-visited...
> "I don't think the engineers or anybody at Microsoft had any idea it would have the success it had
They also flew him out to deliver it. I feel like they had an idea of what they had.
High-res version for your modern desktop: https://archive.org/details/bliss-600dpi
How much did Bill Gates pay for Bliss? ChatGPT: “Microsoft paid photographer Charles O’Rear a confidential amount for the Windows XP wallpaper “Bliss,” but it is widely reported to have been in the “low six figures,” meaning over $100,000.” Charles should have asked for MS stock instead. “In 2005, Facebook offered David Choe about $60,000 to paint murals at its office. Instead of cash, he chose Facebook stock. When M…
The wikipedia says Microsoft acquired full rights after Bill Gate's Corbis acquired the photographers company, so that is a complete forgery/hallucination?
> O'Rear made it available as a stock photo through Westlight, which was bought by Bill Gates' Corbis in May 1998.[36][43] The photograph was initially titled Bucolic Green Hills.[42][44] By the time of its acquisition, Westlight was estimated to have been one of the largest stock photo agencies in the United States. Corbis had previously hired O'Rear to photograph wine auctions in Burgundy in 1995,[45] and after the acquisition, they digitized Westlight's images.[36] Microsoft contacted O'Rear through Corbis in 2000, wanting to buy full rights to the photograph.[40]: 3:37, 3:50 [6] O'Rear had to personally deliver the film to Microsoft in Seattle due to delivery services declining because of its high value. The Napa Valley Register reported that O'Rear was paid "in the low six figures".[6][40]: 3:57 He had signed a confidentiality agreement and cannot disclose the exact amount.[2][46] Microsoft renamed the photograph to Bliss and chose it as the default wallpaper of Windows XP.[6][37]
For the curious, here is Red Moon Desert which, according to TFA, was almost used instead of Bliss but was rejected for looking too much like buttocks: https://windowswallpaper.miraheze.org/wiki/Red_moon_desert
Appropriately the photographer's name is O'Rear.
Isn't there debate in the community that this photo was actually altered and that he has been lying about it?
I’m a bit confused about the claim that the image was altered. Sometimes skies look like that and grass looks like that and (the right) film is more than capable of capturing that with the appropriate saturation. Especially Velvia. Velvia is probably even cranking up the saturation, to levels you would not see like that with the naked eye. Here is a landscape photographer showing their own favorite Velvia photographs…
Based on the borders of the image shown being extended from the actual wallpaper file (take a close look at the top and left) it was probably cropped as well.
It's entirely possible the color was edited by mistake (i.e. converted poorly) - IIRC the color profile on the tiff was not sRGB.
Similarly, the Windows wallpaper with the metallic bubbles is the Selfridges shop in the Bullring, Birmingham, UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfridges_Birmingham
