Autumn

Autumn, originally known as Autumn Leaves, is a wallpaper included in Windows XP, licensed from Corbis. It was taken by Peter Burian in October 1999. It depicts a road covered in leaves in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. There is also a vertical version; both are no longer available on Getty Images or other stock photo sites although they are still available on Photononstop.

History
Peter Burian took Autumn with a Nikon F90 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada during October 1999. At the time, Burian did not think of it much and therefore did not expect it would become so popular. He would subsequently submit both the vertical and horizontal versions to Corbis as royalty free images, who seem to own the rights to them although he got 15% of the sales from it. In 2001 Microsoft bought a license to the horizontal version for around $300 for Windows XP's wallpaper set, where it has become his most successful and well known image. Although it doesn't have the same popularity as Bliss, it is still one of the most well known XP wallpapers.

In 2007, Vanity Fair journalist Nick Tosches decided to track down where Autumn was taken, a process that took several months of contacting people and browsing online. Eventually he was informed by Microsoft that it originated from Bill Gates' stock photo agency Corbis, so he found its Corbis page, which did not mention its photographer due to Corbis owning the rights to the photo. However, Vanity Fair's senior photo research editor Ann Schneider was able to find out the photographer's name. Tosches contacted Burian, and they were able to track down where the photo was taken. His findings would be discussed in a Vanity Fair article titled Autumn and the Plot Against Me.

Ever since, Burian has taken more photos at the same spot, including a winter version. He still has a high res copy of the horizontal version, although the two copies that appear on 500px appear to be more faded than the original Corbis version, which is still available at French stock photo agency Photononstop. Both have watermarks, one with "2002" and the other with "2005"; neither of those years are correct as the photo was taken in 1999.