I always found that photo to be vaguely depressing.
I had it on my computer for years. Not sure I really ever looked at it. It was the right amount of bland to keep the icons from getting lost.
My perfect desktop was a photo I took with a river and mountain with just a bit of light coming from behind the mountain at sunrise. A third of the screen was pretty dark for the icons, and then the shades of grey got lighter moving up and to the right. Enough in there to look at and explore, but the icons popped out as well.