The Reddit community is home to 23.6 million members—one that includes everyone from photography amateurs, enthusiasts, and professionals to simply folks who appreciate the planet we live on.

The subreddit was created in early 2011 and is ranked #18 by size as of this article.

It features pretty much exactly what the community’s description on Reddit says—landscape photography. The subreddit’s rules do state that all pictures must mainly focus on the land, it can’t be silhouetted.

If an image does happen to be more focused on the sky, there’s a place for that too. And if the image includes people or human-made objects, there’s another place for that too.

Bored Panda reached out to one of the community’s prominent landscape photographers, Marcin Zając. Born in Poland and based in Northern California, Marcin is a software engineer who spends his free time chasing light and scenery with his camera.

“After graduating from university, I moved to the United States for work,” added Marcin, “I took advantage of this opportunity by traveling around the western US and fell in love with the natural landscapes there. I bought a camera to document my travels and that quickly became a big passion of mine."

Martin has a lot of memorable moments documented on his Instagram. One of his bigger successes—one that netted him nearly 50,000 upvotes on Reddit several years back—was The Magic Mushroom shot.

In the photo, Marcin eternalized a mushroom-shaped hoodoo that stands tall in the New Mexico badlands with the Milky Way in the background.

Marcin tends to catch moments with clear-blue skies, but he thought the reddish cloud clusters added a whole lot of interest to the scene.

“Before going on the trip, I researched the area to find the most interesting rock formations,” elaborated Marcin. “I didn't know the location of this ‘mushroom rock’, but I found it while hiking during the day. After sunset, I came back to this location to capture the night sky there.”

Fun fact, the shot looks like it was taken during sunset, but, in reality, it was light pollution coming in from nearby towns.

You might think that shots like The Magic Mushroom essentially only need some good gear and a steady hand. But there’s a lot more at play. Like, a lot.

One of the bigger challenges that Marcin points out is just how dependent the shot is on the weather conditions: “I will often visit the same location multiple times to capture it in the best conditions. When the weather conditions are worse than expected, it can be disappointing. At the same time, when everything aligns, there is nothing more rewarding than being there to see and capture it.”

Another crucial factor in making a photograph work is post-processing. Just like all the surreal photos you see of space phenomena like nebulae and clusters of stars, landscape photos too need to undergo the same photo manipulation treatment.

Marcin notes that post-processing provides opportunities to enhance the natural beauty captured through the photo lens. It’s what helps bring out the details that truly matter because otherwise they might not be visible in the raw file.

And even then, if you are a master at scouting out spots, image manipulation, and probably gifted with the power to change the weather (optional, can be substituted with patience), that’s still not all. There is the already mentioned technical factor where you actually need good equipment as well as good planning skills and an extra measure of good luck.

Above all else, there’s composition and light. “Without an interesting composition, even the most stunning scenery can fall flat in a photograph,” explains Marcin.

"Composition helps guide the viewer's eye, creating a sense of balance and harmony within the frame. It allows you to tell a story or convey a specific mood or emotion. Light is equally vital because it not only illuminates the landscape but also sets the mood and adds depth to the scene.”

Be sure to glance at Marcin’s Instagram page and give him a follow, as well as check out his website and store for more breathtaking snaps of nature and all things beautiful.

And if you haven’t had your fill of nature, go outside. Or not. You can appreciate nature all the same in this subreddit. Or if you can’t be bothered with that, why not just leave a comment of your favorite natural landscape in the comment section below!