Eye Music
Magical and Meaningful
Eye music is an unusual musical form, mysterious and magical, and containing hidden meanings or embedded puzzles. The places here have deeper historical, cultural, or scientific meanings than may first appear. It may take time to discover the story behind the photo, or you can create a story of your own for each photo.
Invisible Light, The Pueblo of Santa Ana – Tamaya New Mexico, 2013 (near infrared)
by Michael Piraino
These cottonwoods are growing along the banks of the Rio Grande River on the Pueblo of Santa Ana – Tamaya. Cottonwood trees are spectacular, artful and sculptural trees. I love the way they line the banks of rivers and around other water sources. They are fascinating in any season, with their widely spreading branches in winter, to their light green buds in spring, through to their shimmering bright yellow leaves in the fall. This photograph is in near infrared light, which is just beyond what the human eye can see. This allows a bit of color in the photograph as compared to the monochrome of my deep infrared shots.
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Cottonwood Trees and Blue Hills, Utah Badlands, 2021
by MIchael Piraino
A mesa in shadowy blue morning light, cottonwoods in brilliant sunshiny yellow, and one glorious dead tree. Such a varied landscape tucked away up a dirt road in Utah. Much of the surrounding landscape is barren, making scenes like this all the more striking.
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Approaching Storm, El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico, 2013
By Michael Piraino
The sandstone bluffs of El Malpais National Monument provide a panoramic view of the volcanic landscape in the high desert below. But I was particularly taken with this pine tree growing out of a crack in the sandstone. The soft lighting seemed to accentuate its loneliness. There were lightning storms meandering around off to the west, and the cliffs are susceptible to lightning strikes, so I kept a close eye on the storms’ movement while I took this photo. An hour later, that storm was unleashing lightning on these cliffs. Fortunately, I had already retreated to safer ground.
Monochrome matched the solemn mood of the moment.
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Sandstone Formations, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, 2018 (infrared)
By Michael Piraino
The devil gets credit for lots of remarkable landscape features, but this one takes the cake. It’s a wonderland in Navajo sandstone. There are hoodoos, arches, our-offs and cliffs, all set in the midst of a fairly barren desert landscape. It’s well-hidden from the dirt road, and I had the place all to myself for a couple of hours. I found that infrared shots brought out the strangeness of the scenery most effectively.
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Sea Floor Aerial, Gulf of Mexico, 2017
By Michael Piraino
I took this photo from an airplane after visiting my father in law in Florida. This is the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. You can spot some waves and even a boat on the surface if you look closely.
Even as humanity seems to work against nature, nature persists with its own laws, responding to what we do in its own way. It is bringing us heat and drought and fires and smoke. But mystery and beauty as well.
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Ancient Ice in a Glacial Lake, New Zealand, 2017
by Michael Piraino
This photo of ancient ice floating on a glacial lake has more meaning than we can see. Human vision cannot distinguish the scene as it appears here. It is one slice of time; one two hundredth of a second severed from its past and its future. What I saw that morning was movement, sparkles coming and going, and waves of color on the water surface.
We go about our business full of certainty about many things that are more than they seem. Certainty is often the enemy of deep thought.
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Geothermal Steam and Blue Lake, Iceland, 2019
By Michael Piraino
Mývatn Geothermal Area. This is a place to experience the wild, rambunctious nature of our planet. It’s full of boiling mud, smoking fumaroles, craters, lava fields and this vibrant blue steaming lake. The steam in front of the mountain is from a geothermal plant.
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Sunrise, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Grove, 2009
By Michael Piraino
An Air Of Antiquity. The rising sun lit the sky, while I lit the tree with my flashlight. I love these trees for their character and tenacity. They survive where no other trees do, with an annual growing season of only about 45 days. Climate change seems to be affecting these amazing patriarchs, but exactly how isn’t clear.
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Sunbeams, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Grove
By Michael Piraino
The bristlecones are some of my favorite trees on the planet. There are three species of bristlecones. These are pinus longaeva (“long-lived”), also called the Great Basin or the western bristlecone. One of these trees up here in the White Mountains is over 5,000 years old–the oldest living thing on the planet. I have renewed my acquaintance with these trees several times, and am always awed by their adaptability and patience, growing above 10,000 feet where not much else can grow.
The ancient and patient bristlecone pines of the White Mountains have silently watched over their high country home for thousands of years. A visit here is a spiritual journey, one that leaves you talking only in respectful whispers, if at all.
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Lone Cottonwood Tree and Blue Hills, Utah Badlands, 2022
By Michael Piraino
The blue hour was a great time to see this lone cottonwood tree contrasting with the hills of the lower part of the mesa.
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Jurassic Navajo Sandstone Formations, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, 2018
By Michael Piraino
There are perhaps more iconic locations in this remote area of Arizona, but none more sculptural than this sandstone formation. It takes a long ride over deep sand to get here, but the reward was in having all this natural artwork to myself. Around every corner there seems to be another amazing formation.
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The Ancients, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, 2018
By Michel Piraino
Indigenous peoples who were part of the Fremont Culture lived here and created these pictographs about 1,000 years ago. No one really knows what these huge figures represented, which I think is great; it allows any of us to speculate and decide what they mean to us. I enjoyed the beautiful rock formations that framed these evocative figures. You have to pay close attention to notice these figures as you head to the beautiful waterfall further along the trail.
Unfortunately, not everyone respects this ancient artwork. Someone hiked up here and put graffiti beside one of these figures. Fortunately, it the vandalism has been erased.
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Jörundur, The Ancient One, Iceland, 2019
By Michael Piraino
This is Non-Iconic Iceland, with the arctic foliage showing off its fall colors. Further south, the still green shrubbery was full of crow berries, but here in the far north the golds, reds, oranges appear even more vibrant under a gray sky. Mile after mile was graced by this artist’s palette of color.
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Leaf Glow, Yosemite Valley, 2020
By Michael Piraino
The ground at your feet can often be more full of spectacle than the iconic vista in front of you, but you have to remember to look closely. These frosted leaves were glowing in the first rays of the sun on a winter day in Yosemite Valley. A surprise scene just waiting to be appreciated.
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Fungus on a Log, Yosemite Valley, 2010
By Michael Piraino
This quiet corner of Yosemite Valley is filled with small miracles. Some flowing water, including a little waterfall less than a foot tall. Mushrooms in artistic design on a fallen log. Lichen covered stones in pastel colors. A dead tree renews the forest.
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Moonlight and 180 Degree Overhead Panorama, Yosemite Valley, 2020
By Michael Piraino
We stood out in the cold morning air admiring the way the snow decorated the evergreens. Add light from the half moon and the warm glow from a cabin, and you’ve got predawn glory. This is a 180 degree overhead panorama. The left side was looking straight ahead of me and the right was looking straight behind. Ye moon is lurking just behind the tree at the top
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Rocks and Ice Design, Yosemite Valley, 2020
By Carin Piraino
Wintertime in Yosemite; peaceful with artful natural designs along the creeks and rivers. Carin found this still life as we explored along Bridalveil Creek, below the falls.
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Dawn, Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, 2007
By Michael Piraino
Gentle Arrival Of The Day. Taken from the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet, this is one of my favorite views of Barkley Sound and the Broken Group Islands. There is a buoy offshore that has the most evocative bell, especially in the fog.
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Ancient Bristlecone Pine Patriarch Grove, White Mountains, California, 2009
By Michael Piraino
They Are The Ancient Ones. This grove is located at the tree line high in the White Mountains, a location where practically nothing else can grow. Early morning is a great time to be here, a time when I’ve had the grove to myself. I liked the gentle softness of this sunrise. The Patriarch Tree here is the world’s largest bristlecone. It’s worth learning about the secrets of these ancient ones.
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Red Maple Leaf Reflections in Pond, Eastern Shore, Maryland, 2003
By Michael Piraino
I came across these reflections while meandering around a pond at the edge of a forest. The early sunlight lit up the leaves perfectly. This whole area in eastern Maryland was covered with tidal wetlands and scenic ponds.
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Winter Tree and Cliffs, Yosemite Valley, 2020
By Michael Piraino
Wintertime shows off the sculptural forms of trees in Yosemite Valley. With the background of cliffs, this tree seems to reach out to you. It also has something to say about the environment; this was an evergreen tree.
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Redwood Tree Forest, Redwoods National and State Parks, California, 2019
By Michael Piraino
I captured this scene from the opposite bank of a deep ravine in the middle of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, the least developed of the redwood parks. That high perspective allows you to view the trees at an unusual angle, straight on from midway up the trunks. In the 1960s, the state of California wanted to put a four-lane highway through here. Hard to believe. These redwood groves are so filled with quiet strength and tranquility, it would have been a shame to destroy that for the sake of more concrete and a few minutes of pleasure for drivers passing through. Redwood forests play a key role in protecting our environment. Infrared black and white.
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Cottonwood Trees, Zion National Park, Utah, 2014
By Michael Piraino
Early morning sun behind the cottonwood lining the Virgin River, in infrared black and white. In late March, the cottonwoods were already leafing out, enlivening the river banks. The design of cottonwood trees is a marvel, and I appreciated how the trunks of this large tree reached up and out in a harmonic way.
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Cottonwood Trees, Fruita, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, 2018
By Michael Piraino
One of these Fremont cottonwood trees is known as the mail tree, because for many years, it was where residents picked up and dropped off their mail. It is over a century old. Natural design at its best.
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Cottonwood Trees, Tamaya Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico,
By Michael Piraino
Cottonwood trees line the banks of the Rio Grande River on this pueblo located north of Albuquerque. Tribal members shared with us their creation story, which explains how the tribe came to live here in addition to their original homeland in the mountains. It felt as if these trees were there to protect the people.
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Rock Formations, Drumbeg beach, Gabriola Island, Canada, 2009
By Michael Piraino
We enjoyed the views of scenic Gabriola Passage and the Strait of Georgia from this little beach park, on the east end of the island. But what we appreciated most were the vibrant and unexpectedly stylish rock patterns on the beach itself. A memorable morning on our first of many visits to Vancouver Island. Suprising designs are everywhere in nature.
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Ice patterns in Merced River, Yosemite Valley, 2020
By Michael Piraino
In winter we often find the most impressive scenery down around our feet. Plants caught in the ice at the edge of the Merced River are especially attractive. It’s a painterly view of ice formation over fallen leaves. Or maybe it’s really a metaphor laid onto a pond. The leaves are food and shelter for pond life. Or they’re a sludgy mess. I prefer the beautiful interpretation.
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Roaring River at Alluvial Fan, Rocky Mountain National Park, 2013
By Michael Piraino
This gentle looking scene on September 11, 2013, was about to change dramatically. The day was cloudy and rainy, which gave this scene a soft, pastel-like look. But the softness was deceiving. This river is appropriately named, as it flows swiftly over and around a huge number of boulders here at Alluvial Fan. A few hours after I took this shot, this spot was inundated and covered with mud, boulders and debris in one of the biggest floods in years. This is a scene that no longer exists, but something new will have taken its place there. Taken from a large boulder looking down in the river.
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Patriarch Grove of Ancient Bristlecone Pines, 2008
By Michael Piraino
Even dead bristlecones have interesting shapes. John Muir said the bristlecones were “irrepressibly and extravagantly picturesque, offering a richer and more varied series of forms to the artist than any other species I have yet seen.”
Recorded human history began around 5,000 years ago. Some of these Ancient Ones were alive even then, and every year since, they have recorded history inside themselves in their own slow, patient way. The first time I visited the bristlecone pines of the White Mountains, all was silence except for the occasional whisper of the wind. Color, shape, the rarity of the air—I was hooked, and brought back images of bark, wood, shape and color. On my second visit, we climbed a trail and focused on the setting of the place, but once again, silence prevailed. On my third trip, I went up to the highest trees, above 11,000 feet. And there the silence was finally broken by a voice that softly whispered “Grandfather.” I looked over my shoulder and there he was: a venerable patriarch, holding onto the mountain slopes and calling out to me. Perhaps the bristlecones only speak after you have earned their trust.
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Sunrise at Hot Creek Geologic Site Eastern Sierra
By Michael Piraino
It takes about 1,000 years for this steam to be created in the magma chamber three miles below ground and find its way to the surface at Hot Creek. This spot is within the 760,000 year-old Long Valley Caldera, one of the largest on earth. The steam vents and boiling pools change as a result of frequent local earthquakes.
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