There’s beauty everywhere around us. And even though we might forget about this little fact, when we slow down, breathe in deeply, and take a closer look, we’ll notice just how gorgeous and soul-healing life can be.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the r/MostBeautiful subreddit celebrates aesthetics in whatever form they might take. The subreddit is home to nearly 1 million members who are urged to share photos about the beauty in the world around them, from the simple and ordinary to the “majestic and awe-inspiring.” The online group is very inclusive and focused, encouraging people to share photos that they personally find nice-looking.

We firmly believe that things and sights of beauty need to be seen by as many Pandas as possible. So we’ve collected some of the most jaw-dropping pics, as shared on r/MostBeautiful, to bring a bit of wonder into your lives at the start of the new year. Scroll down, enjoy, and upvote your favorite photos, dear Readers.

I reached out to one of the moderators at r/MostBeautiful to have a chat about the subreddit’s history, and I got in touch with nature and wildlife photographer Roeselien Raimond from the Netherlands to talk about lighting, composition, aesthetics, flow, the relationship between thinking and intuition when taking pictures, and post-processing in photography. Scroll down for both of Bored Panda’s full interviews with the moderator and professional photographer. And if you’re interested in seeing some of Roeselien’s wonderfully foxy photos, you can find them on her website, as well as in her previous articles on Bored Panda here, here, and here.

#1 Mount Saint-Michel During Low Tide

Image credits: Higher_Primate01

The r/MostBeautiful subreddit was born after the founder and chief moderator challenged himself to find three beautiful things every day. “As part of that effort, he collected images of various stuff he found beautiful. Eventually, he had a large collection of photos and decided to create a subreddit where he can share all of these,” one of the moderators managing the r/MostBeautiful online community told me about the roots of the group.

They told Bored Panda that the sub has changed “a great deal” over the past nearly-seven years, since 2015. There has been a noticeable shift towards featuring landscapes. “Our content used to be much more eclectic. We featured not just landscapes but a lot of other things—sculptures, paintings, architecture, portraits, beautifully designed objects, or machines, basically anything that we found beautiful. As the sub grew and as our subscribers began actively contributing to it, we found the content to be skewing more towards landscapes.”

They added that they still welcome contributions that feature different subjects, too, not just landscapes. So you shouldn’t be spooked if you’d like to share something that you personally find to be beautiful.

#2 Kyoto, Japan

Image credits: jayksofue

#3 The Wandering Rivers Of Patagonia, Argentina

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

Since the content shared on r/MostBeautiful of original content and non-original images, you can’t expect every single pic to be of the same quality. Not everyone is a professional photographer, after all.

“Inevitably, you will see photos that may not be as beautifully composed as other submissions. We try to curate as best as we can without driving away contributors. It’s a tricky thing— balancing the desire to be a welcoming sub to people who want to contribute images that they find beautiful while trying to maintain the quality of the content,” the moderator said that the team takes a mixed approach of looking at objective aesthetic value and the subjectivity factor when evaluating the photos shared on r/MostBeautiful.

I was also curious to take a peek into what it’s like to take on the role of a moderator. “I have not quantified the amount of time I spend managing this community, to be honest. Some days are easier than others,” the mod told me. “In the beginning, it was truly time intensive, but as time went by and you found your groove and learned the ways automoderator can help ease the work, things became smoother and much more manageable.”

#4 This Place Is The Definition Of Autumn

Image credits: whatsaustindoin

#5 Tallest Indoor Waterfall Surrounded By Terraced Indoor Forests In Changi Airport, Singapore.

Image credits: ManiaforBeatles

#6 Wisteria Climbing Up A Home In South Kensington, London

Image credits: SScouterSS

Dutch photographer Roeselien highlighted the fact that light and lighting are “everything” when it comes to photography. ” I’m always checking the weather, wondering if there’s a chance on a beautiful sunrise or sunset. Light can give a photo that magical touch that I’m always looking for,” she said that she’s always aware of how the weather conditions will impact her work.

Meanwhile, when it comes to composition, the nature photographer listens to her intuition. “I never ever think about rules of thirds or golden ratio. Not that I think these rules aren’t important. Quite the contrary. But I sort of internalized them, so that I don’t have to worry about them anymore,” she told Bored Panda. that at a certain point professionals turn conscious decisions into unconscious ones.

#7 Tranquillity Of Nature. The First Snow And A Lonely Tree In Järvenpää, Finland

Image credits: SScouterSS

#8 Heavy Rain In Neon Lit Hong Kong

Image credits: teemusphoto

#9 Reindeer In The Forest

Image credits: tilltheend0ftime

I was interested to get into the head of a professional photographer and learn about when they know when to take a photo. “I think this varies greatly from photographer to photographer,” Roeselien told me.

“I have colleagues who plan everything down to the last detail and who work fully rationally. Not me, though. I shoot from my heart. Once my head gets involved, it might technically still be a good photo, but usually, these are not the images that make me happy,” she said that she likes to rely on intuition and to avoid overthinking.

“Only when thinking stops and I end up in a flow, in which time, the cold and every inconvenience disappears, I take pictures that really move me and given the many positive responses, I have the feeling that these photos also touch others the most.”

#10 “Wall”

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#11 Amongst The Mushrooms

Image credits: commonvanilla

#12 A Walk Through A Rainforest Inside A Volcano On Terceira Island

Image credits: commonvanilla

Meanwhile, photographer Roeselien explained to Bored Panda the role that she thinks post-processing plays in photography. She said that this shouldn’t be the main focus of what a photographer does.

“Although post-processing is an important aspect, I usually don’t spend much time on it. If a photo needs more than 5 minutes of editing, it’s probably just not good enough. With a few exceptions,” she said.

“I crop, adjust contrasts and lighting. I denoise and sharpen where necessary and I remove (small) disturbing elements. Oh, and I love to play with color, depending on my mood. Sometimes, I pull on the red curve and sometimes I remove some blue cast. I just do as it feels.”

#13 Blossoms In Barcelona

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#14 “Watching The Sunset From 32000 Ft”

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#15 Train Passing Through Harz National Park

Image credits: commonvanilla

The r/MostBeautiful subreddit has been around since April 2015, and in that time, it has amassed nearly 954k members, eager to get their daily dose of aesthetics.

The moderators are very big on transparency and they ask that anyone posting photos credit the content creators and sources. They suggest that members use either Google or TinyEye reverse image search to find the original sources. “If you submit unattributed content or ignore requests for attribution, your future submissions may be filtered,” they warn.

#16 Osaka Castle, Japan

Image credits: Elenore_Duff

#17 Dog And Mountains From Tent

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#18 Summer Day In Lovatnet, Norway

Image credits: SScouterSS

Meanwhile, if you’re posting a photo that you’ve taken yourself, you can include the OC (Original Content) abbreviation either in the title or in the comments.

The moderators ask that redditors don’t submit any low-effort or poor-quality images. The subreddit is about featuring the ‘Most Beautiful’ things, after all. And beauty takes effort.

What’s more, posters are asked to share up to a maximum of 2 submissions per day. “However, please limit submissions to two images within a 24-hour period, whether OC or non-OC,” the moderators hint that quality should come before quantity. And that members should avoid spamming the group and overwhelming the feed.

#19 Autumn In Maine, USA

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#20 I Was Told To Share My Bridge Shot Here!

Image credits: reddit.com

#21 Uranosaki Station, Japan

Image credits: 03Shael

A while back, I spoke about beauty with Dr. Jane Nicholas from St. Gerome’s University at the University of Waterloo. She told me that modern culture is visual culture and, as a result, things like the beauty industry have grown substantially over the 20th century.

“Its expansion reveals the importance of beauty in people’s lives as it shapes their identities, especially in regard to gender,” she told Bored Panda.

#22 Lago Di Garda, Italy

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#23 Traffic Lights

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#24 Forest Path

Image credits: Jakethedog16

According to Dr. Nicholas, as more and more people live in anonymous, increasingly-dense cities, appearances and visuals become how we make judgments about things and people.

“So how one appears is often presumed to be who one is. Historically, the rise of the modern city was seen as the place of quick judgments on appearances in places that were crowded but also built for observation. Evaluation by one’s appearance, then, took on new importance. This has only intensified,” she said.

#25 A Very Beautiful Shot

Image credits: sezar4321

#26 Early Foggy Morning In A Chinese Countryside

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#27 Pals, Spain

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

The history expert said that beauty is, both at the same time, very personal and deeply culturally driven. So, as a result, the beauty industry finds itself intrinsically linked to the consumer.

“It provides products and images for consumption and how consumers take those up largely determines its success. Beauty products and practices have to resonate with consumers, who are not simply dupes but often thoughtful and measured in what they want and can consume,” Dr. Nicholas told Bored Panda.

#28 Tree In A Blue Flower Field

Image credits: reddit.com

#29 Livraria Lello, A Bookstore In Portugal

Image credits: golden_an

#30 Lake Kawaguchi, Japan

Image credits: commonvanilla

“Gaps in services and products lead to further innovation. Throughout the twentieth century, for example, women of color struggled to be appropriately represented and struggled to find appropriate products. In multiple ways, the industry was forced to grow and expand to respond properly to their needs. Black entrepreneurs often led the way,” she said.

What was once seen as very natural, widely accepted, and done for the sake of beauty can now seem odd, bizarre, downright weird.

“When dislocated from their context, what was typical in one time period seems strange in another. Today, we see the highly filtered, fully made-up selfie as quite ordinary. When you pause to consider it though, it is interesting to think about how those reflect changes in technology (both digital and in cosmetics), as well as in dominant presumptions of what is considered beautiful. It can also be reflective of the democratization of techniques in lighting and makeup application that were historically reserved for insiders within modeling. Now, anyone can use them,” Dr. Nicholas said.

#31 Wild Rabbit Cleaning Its Ears

Image credits: golden_an

#32 My Favourite Shot From My Phone ?

Image credits: Le-Croissant

#33 South Coast, Iceland

Image credits: pp0787

#34 Went For A Walk By My House And I Think I Found The Path To Narnia.

Image credits: onlylostphysics

#35 Full Moon Setting Behind A Lime Tree On A Hill

Image credits: golden_an

#36 Deer Drinking Water From Lake At Sunset

Image credits: reddit.com

#37 Train Passing Through Colorado

Image credits: crimsonpickles

#38 A Tiny Douglas Fir Tree Growing On A Submerged Log In Fairy Lake

Image credits: golden_an

#39 Path To Windsor Castle, England

Image credits: arbili

#40 A Fisherman

Image credits: Master1718

#41 Picture Of The Sky From A Plane

Image credits: AkkyYT

#42 “Rains In Africa”

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#43 The Grays Of Amsterdam

Image credits: reddit.com

#44 A Golden Morning At Mont Saint-Michel, France

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#45 Amazing Autumn Vibes, Mount Fuji, Japan!

Image credits: sezar4321

#46 A Hotel On The Edge Of A Lake In Dolimiti, Italy

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#47 Patagonia

Image credits: commonvanilla

#48 Kyoto Street After The Rain

Image credits: golden_an

#49 Solar Eclipse Over The Artic. Image By Dr. Miloslav Druckmüller

Image credits: CryptoExodus

#50 Glacial Lake

Image credits: golden_an

#51 Artist Bends And Welds Wires To Create Sculpture Of Historial Figue, Ferdinand I

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#52 Pond In The Woods

Image credits: tanzaniteflame

#53 Amsterdam In A Wing Mirror

Image credits: crimsonpickles

#54 View From Tianmen Cave, China

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#55 The Highlands Of Iceland From Above

Image credits: commonvanilla

#56 “The Pit Is An Incredible Dive Site In Tulum, Mexico. A Fresh Water Sinkhole With Unlimited Visibility.”

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#57 Nighttime View Of Barcelona

Image credits: crimsonpickles

#58 View From Airplane As The Sun Was Setting [oc]

Image credits: SleepEatShit

#59 “A Night In Dracula’s City Of Birth”

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#60 Underneath The Trees

Image credits: commonvanilla

#61 View From A Sailboat

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#62 Greenland

Image credits: golden_an

#63 “A Fairy Tale Scenery”, Prague

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#64 Lake Tahoe, California

Image credits: crimsonpickles

#65 Portofino, Italy.

Image credits: SScouterSS

#66 Majestic Peru

Image credits: Elenore_Duff

#67 Best Friend Ever!

Image credits: sezar4321

#68 Lake Tahoe, Nv

Image credits: 03Shael

#69 The Blanketed Hills Of Tuscany

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#70 The Beautiful Icelandic Highlands

Image credits: pp0787

#71 Room Of Rainbows, Crystal Palace, Madrid

Image credits: reddit.com

#72 Pastel Dusk Over The Grand Canyon

Image credits: commonvanilla

#73 Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA

Image credits: pp0787

#74 Cherry Blossoms In Japan

Image credits: tilltheend0ftime

#75 Emerald Lake, Japan

Image credits: newkilfly

#76 The Stars Shine Down On Us

Image credits: purplprism

#77 Beautiful View Lebanon!

Image credits: sezar4321

#78 Spectacular Sunset On The Australian Coast

Image credits: aabialecki

#79 Snow In Amsterdam [oc]

Image credits: gabrielguita

#80 Autumn In Woodstock, Vermont

Image credits: Stan_Ohm

#81 Glennallen, Alaska

Image credits: commonvanilla

#82 Tuscany, Italy

Image credits: commonvanilla

#83 A Ride Through Cherry Blossoms In Fukushima, Japan

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#84 Mount Robson, The Highest Point In The Gorgeous Canadian Rockies. Looks Like The Perfect Place For An Adventure Right?

Image credits: reddit.com

#85 Toronto Canada

Image credits: EnigmaQQ

#86 Tropical View Of Bora Bora

Image credits: reddit.com

#87 Artist Uses Thousands Of Threads To Create Rainbow

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#88 Swans In Prague

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#89 The Roads Of Alberta, Canada

Image credits: tilltheend0ftime

#90 Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Image credits: commonvanilla

#91 Moonset Over Los Angeles

Image credits: Elenore_Duff

#92 Evening Site In My Hometown

Image credits: SYEDALI2210

#93 Professional Photographer Helps Homeless Pets Get Adopted By Taking Special Photos For Chicago’s Largest No-Kill Animal Shelter

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#94 Patagonia Framed By Wildlife

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#95 Crazy Lenticular Clouds Over Mount Fuji, Japan.

Image credits: reddit.com

#96 This Street In Molyvos, Lesbos, Greece

Image credits: reddit.com

#97 “Infinite Road”, Iceland

Image credits: spicedpumpkins

#98 Rue Du Petit-Champlain, Quebec

Image credits: commonvanilla

#99 Icelandic Road

Image credits: Master1718

#100 Colorado Trees

Image credits: d4hm3r

#101 Lake Louise, Alberta

Image credits: mralijey

#102 Huay Mae Khamin Waterfalls In Thailand

Image credits: SScouterSS

#103 Living Under Heavens Roof, Narai-Juku, Japan!

Image credits: sezar4321

#104 These Wonderfull Roses At The Entrance

Image credits: reddit.com

#105 Glacier Point Road In Yosemite

Image credits: commonvanilla

#106 Arc De Triomphe, Paris At Sunset

Image credits: crimsonpickles

#107 Chasing Storms In Milford Sound

Image credits: commonvanilla

#108 ?? Sunny Day With Momiji ? In Arashiyama, Kyoto (Credit To Loïc Lagarde)

Image credits: SuicidalChad

#109 Banff National Park, Canada

Image credits: JaidyJay

#110 Photo I Took Of Water Dropping Off A Mossy Rock As Waves Were Rolling Back To The Sea… [oc]

Image credits: TheLucidMan

#111 Rain Soaked Road Through The Fall Foliage, Woburn, Massachusetts.

Image credits: ManiaforBeatles

#112 The Towns And Mountains Of Banff, Alberta

Image credits: to_the_tenth_power

#113 Three Horsemen Of Canada!

Image credits: sezar4321

#114 Majestic Beauty, As Far As Eye Can See!

Image credits: sezar4321

#115 Rhinos ? ? In Etosha National Park Namibia.

Image credits: reddit.com

#116 First Light On Streets Of Kyoto.

Image credits: timtamtoosh

#117 Early Morning Vibes In The Dolomites, Italy.

Image credits: Delsie_Metzler

#118 Nordfjord, Norway

Image credits: commonvanilla

#119 Fall In Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Image credits: pp0787

#120 Prague, Czech Republic

Image credits: commonvanilla

Source: boredpanda.com