Ever Been in a Billboard Photo?

[greg mgm]

I see so many awesome photos from you guys but have never seen any billboard shots. I'm sure some of you pros have work that ended up on a billboard. Let's see 'em.

Here is our story-
This is a photo of my wife and I on the side of Glendale Memorial Hospital.
My wife was in a horrible train crash. It was the '05 Glendale Metrolink crash... a Jeep Cherokee parked on the train tracks and the driver bailed. The Metrolink train hit the Cherokee, derailing it, sending the train into a parked Freighter train, which overturned. Then a 2nd Metrolink train hit the 1st train.....it was a freakin mess!!! My wife was severely injured, and her doctors weren't sure if she was going to survive. She was in surgery from 9am to 1am (16 hours) being worked on by several teams of doctors and their assistants and techs etc. I wasn't originally going to say this, but her injuries were so serious.....broken and dislocated neck, pelvis broken in 2 places, back impalement, internal bleeding. In retrospect, we are so lucky that Glendale memorial has some of the best surgeons around, cause my wife did survive and is doing great these days. The reason for the billboard is fairly obvious, and shows some of the people who had a real impact on the doctors and staff of Glendale memorial. Wow......reliving this is almost overwhelming.








So, if any of you have a billboard shot that you are personally involved in, lets see 'em!

[SilverBullet]

I once drove down a road that had a billboard video of the road, so I was on it briefly... It was a drive safe billboard, cool technology.

[JohnLemieuxPhotos]

I once drove down a road that had a billboard video of the road, so I was on it briefly... It was a drive safe billboard, cool technology.

That seems counter productive because I know I would be distracted by it.....

[Honu]

WOW what a story cant imagine what ya went through

as a photographer only been on the other side of them ?

a buddy of mine does the work for Coke and Dove and Yoplait and a few others its cool when I see his work on the billboards

one of the cool ones he did recently was the vanilla scoop of ice cream coming out of the coke can on billboards a few years ago

[Rockcrawler]

No billboard, but some of my AZ backcountry shots were used in a promotional video for the ASU College of Nursing.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Great story, I had goosebumps just reading about your wifes experience.

I'm thinking that's a hard one to top!! Congrats to the both of you for making it through that ordeal

[Wander]

How is she doing now Greg? I'm sure there are some long term/pernament problems from such horrible injuries, I can't imagine what you both went through.

The photo looks great on the billboard!

[greg mgm]

Thank you so much for the comments. I really appreciate it.
My wife (Patti) is doing excellent now but she works at it. Yes she does have lingering issues but nothing too bad. Considering how bad she was injured you'd think she'd be worse off. At the time of the accident she had been exercising and running regularly which contributed to her quick recovery. After the accident she was up and walking within a month (with a walker) and walking on her own shortly after that. I can't remember exactly when she started running again, but it was later that same year (05) Her spinal and orthopedic doctors were amazed on her progress. Today she runs several times a week and still exercises regularly. Her pelvis is pretty much a non issue (thanks to medical hardware!) but her neck gives her pain on occasion...no surprise there. And yes, there's hardware in her neck too.

I shouldn't complain, but it was definitely the most stressful time in my life. Up to crash day everything was peachy and great, then you get a phone call. I was in the field on the job (phone co.) when I started getting phone calls from her office telling me she didn't make it to work and she was at Glendale Memorial Hospital with back pain. I'm thinkin OK, that's not too bad. Then on the way there I got a call from her spinal surgeon.....then I flipped out. I was in my truck on the freeway (I pretty much shouldn't have been driving at that point) driving stupidly to get to the hospital fast. Then I get there and media was everywhere! Reporters mobbed me but I completely blew them off (Felt bad afterwards) and spent the whole day waiting in a hallway outside the ER but never saw her that day. The next day I finally saw her but didn't recognize her. She was a mess.

There's so much more to it, but I won't bore you all with the other things going on at the time. We're both glad it's in the past and things are good now.


BTW- The billboard photo is amazing in how crisp and clear it looks. From the sideway underneath it, every hair on our heads is sharp as can be. The photographer must have had a gazillian MP camera!