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Hamad Darwish, an amateur photographer from Kuwait who was studying in USA at that time, was one of the talented lucky ones. These photographers were sent on a commissioned photoshoot by Microsoft itself.
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Sure, about two third of the images were licensed from international photography giants (National Geographic, Corbis et al), but would you have known that some of them were clicked by amateur photographers that Microsoft chanced upon through Flickr? Some of the images were even clicked by their employees!
WINDOWS XP BACKGROUND PHOTOGRAPHER WINDOWS
Jenny Lam from Microsoft Design was assigned the daunting task of selecting the images that would be the official wallpapers for Windows Vista. She had to go through over 50 gigabytes of such images, which amounts to over 10,000 photos. Microsoft is one of those organisations that has managed to seamlessly incorporate the best of the talent from all of the above, so their pictures are on computers all over the world.
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With millions of talented photographers clicking pictures every day, websites exclusively meant for sharing images, organisations that have in house photographers that offer rights of their images for use, even co-workers and employees with a penchant for photography, the choice is endless. But about their back story? Who selects these visual treats that are present on computers all over the world?īeing the chirpy inquisitive birdies we are, The Yellow Sparrow decided to dig deeper into this matter and find the answers to these questions. With more and more time being spent using computers each day, wallpapers are of utmost importance they’re, after all, the first thing we see after the boot logo, to say the very least. The point here is, yes, we do appreciate our wallpapers but have we ever thought about where they come from? With all the spectacular images our operating systems provide us with as wallpaper packs, it would be difficult to imagine what we’d use in their absence. What about the photographer? How did the company come across the image? Where was it clicked? If you have a comparatively newer version of your operating system, there is probably a method for you to check. Gorgeous, isn’t it? If it’s one of the stock wallpapers, we’ll move on the next question. Look at the desktop wallpaper on your screen right now. Okay, we want you to minimize your browser window for a minute, and look. He says at the time, it was second only to that paid to another living, working photographer of then-President Bill Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky. Microsoft owns the picture outright and a non-disclosure agreement prohibits him from naming the exact figure, but O’Rear does say it was an ‘extraordinary’ amount and one of the largest amounts ever paid to a living, working photographer. He took his medium format camera, slipped through a wire fence and took the shot. O’Rear was en route to Marin when he decided to pull over to the shoulder of Highway 121. The location? Sonoma County, California, southeast of Sonoma Valley. The image is known as Bliss and was originally shot by Charles O’Rear in 1996.
WINDOWS XP BACKGROUND PHOTOGRAPHER PROFESSIONAL
While many may have assumed this image was computer generated, or some kind of composite digital manipulation it’s indeed a real location, shot by a real photographer who stakes his professional career that it wasn’t enhanced or manipulated. It’s easy to assume that the image has been seen billions of times the world over. Now imagine how many friends, family members, work colleagues and people using public workstations have no doubt used a computer or peered over someone’s shoulder with this very same desktop background. Released in 2001, there were over 400 million copies in use as of January 2006 ( not including pirated copies). Recognize this photo? It’s the default wallpaper for Microsoft Windows XP.