After Microsoft

"Bliss" by Charles O'Rear (L), "After Microsoft" by Goldin & Senneby (R)

The default desktop image for Windows XP was called "Bliss," and became instantly recognizable. The image was taken by a photographer named Charles O'Rear, but now it's being phased out. The image on the right is what that hill in Sonoma Valley looks like today.

Charles O’Rear used to pass that hill almost daily between his home in Napa and his wife, Daphne, who lived in Marin County. He always carried his medium format camera.

It was hard even to slow down on highway 12/121. But one day, it must have been in January, he pulled over. After about a month of rain the sun comes up, and there is beautiful green grass. The weather during the winter can change dramatically. A break in the storm. Intense blue sky with cumulus clouds. Maybe later that day it rained.

Looking to brand XP as green, Microsoft bought the photo right around the time the soil recovered enough to replant grapes for vineyards. Link -via grow-a-brain.

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Seems no one bothered to read the article. The MS hill photo (on the left) was taken between vineyard plantings. A blight took the vineyard, it was removed, and the green hill is the result. When the soil was ready, after the photo, a new vineyard was planted. What you see in the photo on the right is fall-color grapevines. If you look at the larger photo, you can still see green grass below the vines.