Zack Mahdavi's Blog

For Maria’s 26th birthday, we decided to go on a trip to Vegas! We had a relaxing time, and topped it off with a Cirq du Soleil show.

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Hope everyone had a good 4th.. I took some fireworks shots of the show in Galveston. Check them out on Flickr and let me know what you think.

This photograph of Austin just won the prestigious Smithsonian award. Here’s a shout out to Austin! If you’ve never seen the site Stuck in Customs, check out the photos. The photographer uses a technique called HDR, which is a technique that allows one to incorporate multiple exposures of a scene in the same image. In other words, you can see the detail in the dark, normal, and bright areas of the photo, which is something you can’t see in a normal image.

I finished my first year of medical school a week ago.. what a relief. Now I’m in Boston. I’ll be here for about 2 months doing research, so if you happen to be in the area, let me know.

Yesterday, I took the subway into downtown, with the intention to go on the Freedom Trail. However, everything around me was so new that I got distracted and gave up on following the signs for the trail. Instead, I just ended up walking around Boston taking pictures of stuff I found interesting.

I arrived at the Boston Public Garden. What a sight to see: the place was loaded with the greenest grass I’ve ever seen in my life, immense flowering trees, tons of flowers everywhere, and an insane amount of people walking the gardens.

Another really beautiful area was the Boston Common Park. This park was loaded with people walking their dogs, reading books, playing softball, jogging, etc. It was built in 1634, and is considered the oldest public park in the United States.

It’s really interesting to see how active people are in Boston. Very few people drive since the roads are terrible: instead, every part of Boston is loaded with pedestrians.

The weather so far has been great. Highs are in the 60s, with the lows being in the upper 40s. In other words, I avoid going out in the morning.

People in Boston are also very politically active; I don’t think I’ve met anyone who doesn’t follow the news or politics. This is also apparent on the streets. For example, when I was waiting for the subway to get into the city, these guys were dressed as storm troopers handing out flyers for some political event. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on that side of the road to see what they were campaigning for.

In a past post about Galveston, I mentioned how it was amazing how much of the history of Galveston has been saved in the timeframe of about 100 years. Houston and Dallas don’t have many of their original buildings still standing in downtown, and that’s likely due to the mentality of Texans: why save it when you can build something bigger and better? This thinking is the polar opposite of Boston. In Boston, every street corner is loaded with old buildings such as The Boston Public Library (built 1848). Also, every building tends to have its own unique architecture, which really reflects the historical diversity of the city.

Anyway, I’m really enjoying Boston. All of the pics I have taken of Boston so far are here.

A Flickr member has gone through the trouble of trying to recreate several early 20th century pictures. The results are absolutely amazing. Check it out on Flickr. It’s odd to see how little has actually changed over the years.

This afternoon, I decided to take a break from my computer and go out. I went to the Galveston Island State Park, which is a good 15 miles west from where I live on the island. The place is really nice, quiet, and very scenic. Definitely a must see if you’re into scenery and water.

Check out the shots on Flickr.

Due to the inspiration set by DJ Were-Panda, I decided to finally go to Scholes International Airport here in Galveston, TX. Now don’t judge this place too early: even though it’s called an international airport, the only international planes flying into it are probably sea gulls migrating from South America.

This airport caters mostly to private business. Want a private helicopter tour? Go to this airport. Want a private airplane tour? Go to this airport. Want to learn how to fly a Cessna? Yes, go to this airport.

Regardless, it was fun walking straight up to the fences photographing planes and helicopters coming in and out, while at the same time not worrying whether Homeland Security will add you to the “No Fly” list.

I didn’t see any planes come into the airport, unfortunately, but I did see a lot of them on the ground.

Scholes Airport Flickr pics

Almost a month ago, I visited Ed in San Antonio. We went to Hemisfair Park, which was built in 1968 for the World Fair. The place was absolutely beautiful, with green, lush trees, and lots of waterfalls and fountains around us. Very relaxing, and the weather was beautiful!

The park also houses the “Tower of the Americas” (think Reunion Tower in Dallas, or the Space Needle in Seattle), and it was quite an amazing experience to see the city from up high.

Take a look at the photos, and feel free to critique.

Graduation was on May 20, 2006, and I had a blast!  The evening ceremony was absolutely amazing.  I took several pictures from my seat, so take a look.

I still have 4 more years of school to go (med school), but for those of you will be working, good luck with this new chapter of your life!  I wish you all the best.