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Driving along the Sonoma Highway ( California State Route 12 and 121) he saw the hill, free of the vineyards that normally covered the area they had been pulled out a few years earlier following a phylloxera infestation.

He was particularly alert for a photo opportunity that day, since a storm had just passed over and other recent winter rains had left the area especially green. He was working with Irwin on a book about the wine country. Helena, California, in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco, to visit his girlfriend, Daphne Irwin (whom he later married), in the city, as he did every Friday afternoon. In January 1996, former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear was on his way from his home in St. Microsoft chose the image because 'it illustrates the experiences Microsoft strives to provide customers (freedom, possibility, calmness, warmth, etc.).' ĭue to the market success of Windows XP, over the next decade it was claimed to be the most viewed photograph in the world during that time. The image also became part of Microsoft's $200 million 'Yes You Can' advertising campaign to promote their software, and has been the subject of many parodies. The image would eventually be chosen as the default wallpaper, resulting in the company acquiring the image and renaming it to Bliss. Two years following the acquisition, Microsoft's design team selected images to be used as wallpapers in Windows XP. Westlight would be bought by Corbis in 1998, who digitized its best selling images. He sold it to Westlight for use as a stock photo titled Bucolic Green Hills.

While it was widely believed later that the image was manipulated or even created with software such as Adobe Photoshop, O'Rear says it never was. Former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took the photo on film with a medium-format Mamiya RZ67 camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996.

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