https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53998711
Interesting 'viewpoint' from Netflix!
"You can't copyright mother nature!" Oh purleeze are netlix really so dumb! 
Quite the opposite. If they'd said "you can't copyright a photo of a natural phenomenon produced by mother nature" (for example) then that would have been a lie... and pretty dumb. And if they'd said "We used your copyrighted photo without permission and were fully ware what we were doing" then that would probably be true... but also pretty dumb to admit to.
"You can't copyright mother nature" is true... so they've provided a factual statement that while accurate, is unrelated to the issue at hand. As a result, there's a super-minimal chance the photographer might have though "oh right, I wasn't aware of that. Ah well, forget it then".
Either way, Netflix are in the wrong. They should be held accountable, and pay the applicable compensation... but they have a legal team for a reason, and I guess you can't blame them for giving it a try.