Desert Towers, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.

Spring mornings are a magical time in Moab. And Arches National Park offers myriad opportunities for amazing photographs.

I have had great success photographing the monuments along Courthouse Wash just along the main road inside Arches. On this particular morning, good news was there were clouds in the sky to breakup the ozone blue. Bad news was the early cloud layer blocked the light from the sun.

I decided to work the east side of the monument, hiking across the desert in pre-dawn to find an amazing line of sand dunes that dropped down onto a slickrock basin. The wind ripples in the sand formed an amazing pattern.

This photograph was the result of patience – about an hour’s worth after sunrise. While the puffy clouds had dissipated, the sand ripples helped make the photograph.

The image was made with a Nikon D300 with a super wide Nikkor 10-24mm lens.