Overview įormer National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took the photo on film with a medium-format Mamiya RZ67 camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996. It is estimated that billions of people have seen the picture, possibly making it the most viewed photograph in history. Charles O'Rear took the photo in January 1996 and Microsoft bought the rights in 2000. It is a virtually unedited photograph of a green hill and blue sky with white clouds in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of California's Wine Country.
