Man who took 'most viewed photo ever' explains how he did it - and it's not what you think
One of his pictures is widely regarded as the 'most viewed photo ever', but the photographer behind it all said it was all down to being in the 'right place at the right time'.
You'd think snapping such an accolade would require hours of planning and careful consideration, but American photographer Charles, or 'Chuck', O'Rear, has opened up about how he took the famous shot.
The image is called 'Bliss' and for those non-MacBook users, you'll recognise it as the background of your Microsoft computer screen.
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With luscious, emerald green hills set alongside a serene blue sky that is dotted with perfect fluffy clouds, it's an image that has become a staple for Microsoft users - as it's their default wallpaper on the Windows XP operating system.
O'Rear took the snap in January 1996, when was on his way to visit his now-wife Daphne Larkin - driving from his house in St Helena, California, to hers in Marin County.
Speaking to American publication 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."
Looking at the image, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's surely photoshopped or digitally altered in some way - but it wasn't, O'Rear said.
"When it's on film, what you see is what you get," he explained of taking the image, shot using a Mamiya RZ67 camera with colour Fuji Film and a tripod.
In a video interview for Microsoft, shot by cameraman Bar Leferink and directed by Marcel Buunk under company Shoot the Rabbit, he added: "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 millimetre, it would not have nearly the same effect."
But just how did the picture end up on Microsoft's radar?
Well, it ended up in the lap of Microsoft's Bill Gates, after Corbis group, a licensing company owned by Gates, bought Westlight stock photo agency in 1998.
Westlight was the agency that O'Rear had originally submitted 'Bliss' to.
Microsoft reportedly paid a 'low six-figure' sum of over $100,000, but the exact figure is not known to this day.
Getting the original image to Microsoft in the early 2000s was no mean feat - O'Rear says Fed Ex 'wouldn't touch it' because of how hefty the insurance would be.
This led to O'Rear hopping on a plane to hand deliver the original to Microsoft's Seattle office himself, reports say.
Speaking to People, O'Rear said: "I get emails maybe every week or two, something related to the 'Bliss' photograph. When I die, although I won't be buried, Daphne has said, on your tombstone, we're not going to say National Geographic, we're going to say 'Photographer of Bliss'."
Daphne quipped of his work for National Geographic magazine: "Twenty-five years at Geographic and nobody ever gives a damn about that."
O'Rear added in his video interview with Microsoft: "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."
Support for Windows XP, the system that was rolled out by Microsoft back in 2001, was finally ended by Microsoft in 2014.