Many of us are finding cool things to work on while stuck at home, and I think Matt Birchler takes the cake this week. He, like much of the internet, has been taking off in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and he used the absolutely unreal detail in the game to re-create some of the more iconic wallpapers from recent releases of macOS.

To re-create these images, Matt flew to each location, then used Flight Simulator to position the camera, set the focal length, and adjust the time of day with in-game controls. Then, with a little post-processing magic in Adobe Lightroom, he created the images below.

“Flight Simulator is a ‘make your own fun’ game and I was looking for interesting things to do while flying around,” Birchler told The Verge. He pointed to this video as inspiration, where a group of photographers scouted and re-created the photos themselves in person. “They basically did the same thing, but in real life.”

In lieu of a multiday hiking trip, I think this is a pretty great substitute. It’s a good reminder that we can all take the tools available to us and use them in unexpected, creative ways.

Check out the side-by-side re-creations below or see them all directly on Birchler’s blog.

Big Sur

Catalina

Yosemite