"Photographing the night sky is not as easy as one might think. To take quality photos of the night sky, you really need a tripod to steady your camera. Setting your camera to a longer exposure will capture more stars as the longer the shutter is open, the more information your camera will capture and you'll see a greater result," photographer Dominic told Bored Panda.

"However, if you want to focus on a specific constellation in the stars, you might not want a super long exposure. It all depends on what you're going for. Using the surroundings to add depth to your images is another way to create meaningful and interesting images with the stars," he said.

"It almost seems commonplace now, but a band of the Milky Way Galaxy rising over a tree (or anything in nature) is always incredible to see. The stars are really amazing and we're blessed to be able to capture them in a way our cameras allow that our naked eye does not. Making sure you are in a dark area is beneficial to capturing the depth and the beauty of the night sky. I highly recommend this website to find the best dark site closest to you," he suggested.

According to Dominic, the digital editing process and the end result is up to the user. "I am an advocate for shooting in the RAW camera format if your camera has the capabilities to do so. Most DSLR cameras will have this capability," he opened up about his personal approach.

"By shooting in RAW, you give yourself the freedom to correct the exposure later and really fine-tune your images. Now, you should always try to have the correct focus when taking your photo in the first place, but sometimes you don't have that luxury; a harshly lit situation is a great example," he said.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, but as long as you are happy with the results in your photography or art, you can't go wrong. Staying true to yourself and your vision is the only right way to do things. The potential for a well-crafted image starts with the unedited image and the post-processing half of the photo is the fine tuning where you can really achieve the look you so please. Exposure, contrast, color, and depth are the things to focus on because with those, you can do so much."

Surrealism, which the ‘Woah Dude’ community constantly makes references to, was an artistic and cultural movement that emerged in the early 1920s, from the Dada movement.

In short, surrealism explored the depths of the human mind, hoping to tap into the unconscious mind and people’s dreams and fantasies.

Generally, surrealist works of art feature dream-like imagery where people, environments, and objects are distorted and illogical. It’s jarring. It’s disorientating. It’s… mesmerizing, to say the least.

From our personal perspective, we’re huge fans of Salvador Dalí’s work, and we can remember staring at his work with the melting clocks (‘The Persistence of Memory’) for ages. Other well-known surrealist artists include René Magritte (another fan favorite) and Joan Miró.

If you’re a photographer or artist who’s new to the craft, you might find it overwhelming and daunting to compete against everyone who’s already established an online presence. The internet is a bit of a double-edged sword here.

On the one hand, it lowers the barrier to entry and gives everyone with a wifi or ethernet connection the ability to share their work with the world.

On the flip side, there’s so much content and information online these days that it feels like whatever you post is being drowned in a sea of everything and anything.

Meanwhile, you also have to consider the impact of generative AI. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a proponent or critic of AI tools, but you can’t deny that the internet has been flooded with low-quality ‘slop’ over the past couple of years. Your social media feed might be barely usable.

And it can make actual photographers and artists frustrated that they have to compete for your attention against all of this. So, the question is, how can you stand out from the crowd?

There are no secret shortcuts to going viral. A lot of it is mainly luck. The things that you can control, however, are what you create, what your online presence is like, when you post, and how often you share your content. The key here is to be as authentic and passionate about your craft as you can.

Try to focus on developing your unique style and voice rather than worrying about your (lack of) followers and engagement. Keep it up for a long enough time and you’ll build a community of people around you who genuinely love your work. That’ll require discipline, persistence, and patience in spades. And don’t just create random content because you think it’ll be trendy.

The ‘Woah Dude’ subreddit is incredibly popular. It was initially created way back in the autumn of 2009. Now, in early 2025, it boasts a jaw-dropping 4.2 million members.

While size definitely isn’t everything, a community so large is typically an indication that the online group is doing something right. In this case, there’s a constant stream of high-quality images that look out of this world.

According to the team of moderators who run ‘Woah Dude,’ the photos are meant to be mesmerizing, reality-distorting, hypnotic, surreal, absurd, and all-around strange. “Think of the bizarre, erratic, and psychedelic nature of Adult Swim. Or the wondrous, mind-expanding, awe-inspiring nature of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Or even the reality-distorting, confusing, mind-fucking nature of Eternal Darkness for GameCube. We're all of that,” the mods explain.

Generally, the photos and images shared by the members of ‘Woah Dude’ feature vivid colors, intense patterns, complex geometry, recursion, fractals, hyperrealism, abstract art, and extreme perspective. Alongside actual photos of nature and space, you’ll find macrophotography, electron micrography, scientific visualizations, and altered reality video clips, as well as art.

If it’s weird, absurd, or paradoxical, it probably has a place in the group. However, the mods point out that you shouldn’t just post content that literally makes you go, ‘Woah Dude.’ For instance, people with rare talents doing stunts might be cool, but they’re not mesmerizing enough.

There’s a big focus on quality in the sub, which explains why the group has maintained its popularity for such a long time. The members of the community are encouraged to be as descriptive as they can in their post titles.

Meanwhile, if your content can trigger epilepsy or ‘bad vibes,’ you should take the time to note this. Reposts and low-effort posts are to be avoided, as is so-called ‘freebooting.’ In short, everyone’s encouraged to be transparent and credit the original sources.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the pics we’ve featured here today, Pandas. Which ones caught your attention the most? Were there any that genuinely made you do a double-take? Which ones were so mesmerizing or surreal that you didn’t want to look away? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

If you have a moment, share your thoughts. Meanwhile, feel free to share the most surreal photos you’ve ever taken in the comment section at the very bottom of this post.