While its origin may have an incredible backstory, the man who took the 'most viewed photo ever' only ever had one regret about the whole ordeal.
While out on our travels, many of us have likely took a picture of some scenery or beautiful landscapes to show our family and friends.
However, for photographer Chuck O'Rear, his decision to snap some impressive scenery led to him becoming incredibly prolific - whether you realised it or not.
O'Rear took what is considered to be the world's 'most viewed photo' in January 1996, when on his way to visit his now-wife of over 20 years, Daphne Larkin.
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He was driving from his house in St Helena, California to Larkin's in Marin County, noting he 'used to pull over often to take photos' because the scenery along the way was 'so beautiful'.
This particular picture, named Bliss, showed a scenic view of green hills flowing into one another accompanied by a rolling blue sky and fluffy white clouds.
O'Rears' image ended up with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who used it as a background for Window XP, after Gates' Corbis group bought Westlight stock photo agency in 1998, which were the agency he'd initially submitted the photo to as a stock image.
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This is where O'Rear's regret with the photo comes in.
While the exact figure is unknown, 'Bliss' was bought by Microsoft for a 'low six-figure sum' of over $100,000, however, he wished that he'd been better at the negotiating table.
"If I had known how popular it would become and how many computers it would've been on I should've negotiated a [better] deal and said, 'Just give me a fraction of a cent for every time it's seen' and that would've been a nice arrangement," he said.
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"It was not a royalty type of situation. It was a flat 'here's what we're paying you, thank you very much and let's get it on the [computer] screen and get moving.'"
There had long been speculation that 'Bliss' had been photoshopped - I mean, surely such a splendid picture received some filter treatment?
Well, according to O'Rear, it's all legit as he explained: "When it's on film, what you see is what you get. There was nothing unusual. I used a film that had more brilliant colours, the Fuji Film at that time, and the lenses of the RZ67 were just remarkable.
"The size of the camera and film together made the difference and I think helped the Bliss photograph stand out even more."
Topics:Ā Photography, Microsoft, Bill Gates, Viral
Callum Jones