Photographer Behind Viral Phone-Breaking Wallpaper Speaks to Gadgets 360

San Diego-primarily based scientist Gaurav Agrawal has emerged as the photographer behind the picture that caught headlines for crashing quite a few Android phones just lately. Agrawal took that picture at Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana, back in August last calendar year. After capturing the sunset landscape, he uploaded the picture on Flickr with out realizing the fact that it would turn out to be viral — not for any very good reasons but for randomly influencing a big amount of smartphone buyers. Android gadgets from Google and Samsung had been amongst the most impacted by the picture that was made use of as a wallpaper by many buyers.

“It was alarming to say the minimum,” Agrawal, 41, explained to Gadgets 360 in a discussion. “I felt sympathetic to folks who might have misplaced their data and photographs because of to the crash.”

The picture was captured making use of a Nikon DSLR and uploaded on Agrawal’s Flickr profile on September 16, 2019. But prior to sharing publicly, he explained on Flickr that he made use of the picture modifying instrument Adobe Lightroom by which he improved the structure to ProPhotoRGB. This just isn’t supported by some Android gadgets and, therefore, resulted in difficulties with many phones.

“This photograph is in the news lately with Android phones crashing when placing this as a wallpaper,” Agrawal wrote in an current description of the picture in question.

st mary lake sunset image gaurav agrawal Wallpaper

The Saint Mary Lake sunset picture that became well-liked for crashing several Android gadgets
Picture Credit score: Gaurav Agrawal

 

Agrawal explained to Gadgets 360 that he bought to know about the crashes buyers faced from his picture from some of his followers on Flickr. After receiving feedback and messages on the system, he searched the expression “Android crashing wallpaper” on Google to recognize the concern.

“I would have been pretty disappointed if something like that would occur to me,” he claimed. “There had been some sites touting conspiracy theories that it might be a targeted attack by China or Russia. This created it even more unsettling.”

Agrawal’s picture was praised by Flickr buyers at first. But late last month, it became well-liked soon after a Twitter consumer – Ice Universe – warned folks to not implement it as a wallpaper on their gadgets to steer clear of sudden crashes. Some buyers, on the other hand, did the reverse and noted the outcomes on social media. A variety of Google and Samsung cellphone homeowners had been amongst the most impacted buyers. Nevertheless, the picture failed to lead to any difficulties on Iphone products.

Individuals were not informed that the picture was captured by Agrawal till he gave an job interview to BBC previously this week. He explained to Gadgets 360 that the initial resource of the picture was not public as it was predominantly shared by a 3rd-occasion wallpaper web-site that failed to credit history him and was circulating the picture with out any because of credits.

Not just another hobbyist
Agrawal started off his journey with landscape images as a hobbyist — possibly by hijacking what was at first the fascination of his spouse. He bought his to start with digital camera cellphone as the instrument to capture scenes in his frames back in 2006. But that was just a beginning.

The Indian-origin photographer, who did his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, has been picked as a portion of National Geographic photo assignments. He claimed that 1 of the photographs he took at the Salton Sea of the Good White American Pelicans was even picked as the address website page of the annually calendar of the Audubon Society of North America. Further, he received several photo competitions previously, together with 1 at the College of California, San Diego, where by he did his write-up-doctoral get the job done.

gaurav agrawal scientist android wallpaper photographer Gaurav Agrawal

Gaurav Agrawal started off his journey with landscape images has a hobbyist

 

Obtaining claimed that, the crashing of some Android phones by 1 of his greatest sunset shots created him well-liked in the tech planet.

“It was a portion of a limited landscape series of Glacier National Park,” he claimed. “I was hoping that this series would make the viewer appreciate the attractiveness of the grand landscapes of the national park.”

The crashes with that one photo have eventually created Agrawal to change to another structure from now on. Moreover, he’s arranging to increase his images arrive at by becoming a member of Instagram — alongside sustaining his Flickr profile that has in excess of 10,600 followers.

“I deeply treatment about my viewers and glimpse ahead to their appreciation as perfectly as constructive criticism,” he claimed.


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