Let's take a walk through the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago! I went there with friends and I also wanted to capture some of the trip. The easiest way to do that is usually with a smartphone. I also had a GoPro with the max lens mod for video.
Check out the video on YouTube with more photos and other talk:
Photography can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of the time, just using a phone is fine, and I enjoy it. You might not get as much control as with a high-end interchangeable lens camera, and the photos will be of lower quality, but I still enjoy the process as well as capturing memories. I don't need perfect photos all of the time.
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| The grand hall of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, with its high, domed ceiling illuminated in blue. |
For me, with photography, memories are often more important than the technical perfection of the results. I really enjoy a documentary style of photography, just going out, taking photos, and trying to get some context. Years down the line, I can look at those photos and be like, "Oh yeah, I remember that," and then details start coming back to me.
This particular visit was back in 2023, and I'm just now getting around to editing the footage and photos. So, what you see here might be a bit different from what's at the museum now, as exhibits can change. Especially with the featured one like Pompeii. As I publish this article I'm pretty sure it's something related to Spiderman.
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| EXIF data from a photo taken with a Motorola G Stylus 5G phone. |
One of the cool things they had was this massive diorama with a train going through it. You could walk all around it and see all the tiny details. If you have a zoom lens on your phone, it would be perfect subject for that type of photography.
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| A detailed section of the model train exhibit, showcasing skyscrapers. |
They also had a ton of Mold-A-Ramas machines. I remember these from when I was a kid, going to places like Brookfield Zoo and getting little plastic figures of animals. I didn't get one this time, but one of my friends did. It's great to see that these machines still function, still working and producing those cute little figures for kids, or adults! MSI had a room full of them in addition to other machines distributed around the museum.
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| A functioning Mold-A-Rama machine. |
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| Another view of a machine. |
(Mold-A-Rama machines are vintage automated devices that create small, hollow plastic figurines. Typically, a customer inserts coins, selects a mold, and watches as heated plastic is injected into the mold and then cooled, producing a warm souvenir in about a minute.)
The museum has full-size planes, or at least portions of planes, hanging from the ceiling and on display. There are just so many things to look at, see, and do.
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| A United Airlines Boeing 727 N7017U airplane suspended above the model train exhibit. |
There's a large wind tunnel exhibit where you can learn about weather and see 'twisters' (vortices of air made visible with vapor) in action.
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| A vertical vortex of vapor, resembling a tornado, inside a large cylindrical enclosure at the museum. |
Another impressive exhibit is the German U-boat. You have to pay extra to go inside, so I didn't do that, but I did see the exterior. It's really interesting to see up close.
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| Fins and the back propeller of the German U-Boat lit up with blue. |
At the time of my visit, there was a special Pompeii exhibit. We did pay extra to check that out.
(Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples, famously buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The remarkably preserved ruins offer a unique snapshot of Roman life.)
It's interesting how the tools look extremely similar to what you could get now at any big box retail store. Though our products now tend to be made of different materials.
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| Bronze and silver foil mirror and other personal grooming tools. |
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| A collection of pottery, including cups and bowls. |
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| Tweezers and other medical or personal care instruments. |
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| Fishing tools like barbed hooks. |
They also had fishing tools, and again, they're very similar in design to what you could get today. All the pans and pots are fun to see in detail. It shows that, in some ways, we're not really that different. It's just a matter of how much technology a person has at the time and what can be used to augment creations. Back then, they didn't have as many opportunities or options and background knowledge to work off of, so there are differences in that respect, but still, it's pretty close.
You can tell the differences between statues based on how much money the person who commissioned them had. Some are pretty basic, while others are very elaborate. They also had various types of armor.
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| One of the less detailed statues. Looks like a certain social media website guy... lol. |
And then, of course, there were the difficult things from Pompeii related to the volcano. I assume they made casts from the voids left by decomposed bodies and such, and then created the reverse to give an idea of what happened. Some of the artifacts you were even able to touch. I did take that opportunity.
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| A plaster cast of a dog from Pompeii, curled up as it perished in the volcanic eruption. Poor dog ;( |
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| A portion of an ancient Roman column from Pompeii, which visitors were allowed to touch. |
When you're in places like this, obviously be respectful with your photography and videography. Read the rules, make sure it's allowed. In my case, it worked out alright, and I didn't have any problems. Like one of my viewers mentioned after I posted the video, flash photography is generally banned in museums.
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| A lab with many 3D printers at work. |
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| Models of NASA rockets such as the Atlas, Titan II, and Saturn V. |
I really enjoyed the time with my friends and doing the photography at the same time adds to the fun. Museums overall are great. They're definitely worth a visit if you don't normally consider them as an option. And in this case, the Museum of Science and Industry was a very fun trip with a lot of exhibits to explore.