IMA4: HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH A MOONBOW

How to Photograph a Moonbow Captivate Lesson

Moonbow at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park by AtomRayPhotography

EME6208 Interactive Media

Multimedia Project Proposal (Captivate)

1. Topic:

Night time photography of the Moonbow at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

A. Basic Information:

• How to photograph a Moonbow
• Angela Carr
• 6/15/25

B. Problem, Need or Opportunity:

I worked at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in Corbin Kentucky for 11 years. When I started working there were so few pictures of the Moonbow. Really only one man that I knew of was taking pictures of it, this was when SLRs were still just film cameras. Then the advance of DSLRs happened and they became relatively cheaper so a lot of people, me included, bought cameras with the capability to take pictures of the Moonbow. The problem was no one really knew how to take the pictures. I taught myself by trial and error by going every month and practicing, tweaking this setting and that setting. I worked there off and on at the time and I lived just down the road, but I was seeing people struggle to take the photos. I started spending more and more time helping other people get their shots than focusing on my own. I started a program where I would go to the visitor center on moonbow nights and teach people how to use their cameras to shoot the Moonbow. I think this class I have come up with would be greatly beneficial to all photographers, new and old, how to learn how to take pictures of it. It is not an intuitive thing to shoot, you can’t just look at your light meter and say these are the settings, like you can when taking pictures in the daytime. You cannot use a flash, which is everyone’s instinct, and there are so many other things to consider.

C. Targeted Audience

The targeted audience is photographers, mainly those with DSLRs or now Mirrorless cameras as the settings would be similar. I think you need a basic knowledge of photography to follow some of the technical parts of the lesson. But I also think a complete beginner, who is willing to learn, could follow along enough to get the basic settings to start taking pictures. This would also be a good lesson for people who are on the fence of getting a bigger camera to take photos in low light.

D. Learner’s needs

• Knowing what a Moonbow is.
• Knowing when to take pictures of a Moonbow.
• An understanding of what camera is best to use.
• An understanding of the cameras settings they will use.
• An understanding of the equipment needed to buy/bring.
• An understanding of what not to do when taking pictures of a Moonbow.

E. Learner’s Environment:

The learner should be able to access this instruction before coming to the Park to shoot the Moonbow. They can access it on desktop computers, laptops, or tablets. There is a narrative, although most of what is said is written down, so I feel that they need sound, but it is not vital to have sound. There will also be pictures of the Moonbow to help guide them in what they will be looking at when they get to the Park. I feel this is for individual learners, but a group of photographers could get together and take it, discussing what they would do along the way. I do not feel the learner needs to be guided by a teacher or instructor, but I have left my e-mail address at the end in case there are any questions or follow up.

F. Resources and Limitation:

I have taught this class before and have an ancient power point that I used for it. So a lot of content came from that. All the photographs are my own, except seven and a half. I got the thumbs up thumbs down on the true and false slides, the lightbulb and the speedometer on the settings slide all from the program. Of the 3 photographs sourced one is my husband’s cell phone picture, one is my father-in-law’s point and shoot picture and the half is the Facebook photo of the moonbow dates by the park, I call it a half because the picture behind it is actually mine that they use… I have never used this program so I feel that most of my time will be figuring out how to make it do what I want it to do.

G. Overall site schematic:

I envision a learning module that is linear in nature with simple navigation tools of forward and back buttons, allowing the user to go back over information they have already seen or simply move forward. I want it to be simple mainly because photography is a job and the learners don’t need something more overly complicated to deal with. I want it to be visually appealing, the photographer in me. I would like it to be a journey smoothly going from topic to topic. I think photographers would like my E-Learning module because it is easy to follow and doesn’t dumb things down too much to them. The ones that know what ISO, F-stops, and about shutter speeds can skip that slide, and the ones that don’t can learn more by clicking on them. I want people to know what the Moonbow is and how to get their best photograph of it.

Story Board for the Lesson Project

To learn more about Cumberland Falls State Resort Park Click Here!

For the 2025 moonbow schedule Click Here!