Man who took 'most viewed photo ever' explains how he did it - and it's not what you think

If you'd taken one of the most widely-viewed photographs in history, you might think you'd get your ego inflated a little by the success.

That's not what happened to photographer Charles O'Rear, though, after he had the good fortune to see his photo of a gorgeous rolling green hill and blue sky snapped up by Microsoft to become the default wallpaper for Windows computers for years.

It was put in place for Windows XP, and this happened to be a version of the operating system that many people used for a decade or more, thanks to the disastrous roll-out of follow-ups like Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Things are more stable now, and Bliss is no longer the default wallpaper if you're on a modern system like Windows 10 or 11, but the image is still completely iconic and instantly recognisable.

O'Rear is modest about it, though, and has talked about the process of taking the photo a few times, claiming that it was a simple matter of being in the "right place at the right time".

He was driving to visit his now-wife Daphne Larkin in January 1996, from his house in St Helena, California, to hers in Marin County, when he took the photo.

Talking to US magazine People, O'Rear said: "I always carry a camera with me, because you just never know. I used to pull over often to take photos. I think the scenery there was so beautiful."

Because it was a film photograph, too, it hasn't been edited or altered - the light just happened to be perfect, and O'Rear got his exposure just right to capture it vividly.

In a later interview with Microsoft, he expanded on the technique he used: "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. I think if I had shot it with 35 millimeter, it would not have nearly the same effect."

Once Microsoft said it wanted the image for a background and agreed to pay for it (with the exact sum remaining an unknown to this day), O'Rear had to literally get on a plane to fly it to them.

He had to hand-deliver the original negative to ensure that it didn't get damaged in transit, in the days before you could send high-quality image files in a matter of seconds over the internet.

Still, while he's clearly modest, O'Rear does at least admit that he recognises how iconic the photo has become: "I have a theory that anybody now from aged 15 on for the rest of their life will remember this photograph. So now I'm in secondary school, I'm 15 years old, I was on my computers at school and I go onto college and I go on into the work world and now I'm 50 years old, 70 years old and I see that image somewhere. I won't remember where I saw it, but I will remember it."