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Tired of your expertise staying hidden? "Writing & Influence," hosted by Elaine Acker, features interviews with accomplished writers and empowers business executives to confidently unleash their thought leadership through compelling content. Discover how to trust your instincts, silence your inner critic, and publish content that truly showcases your unique value. Each episode is packed with actionable insights to help you build your influence and grow your business using the power of words. Ready to turn your expertise into impact? Learn how to transform your knowledge into a powerful content strategy that leads to real results—all with the help from Elaine and her guests!
W&I_Ep16
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[00:00:00]
Elaine Acker: Welcome everybody. Today I am honored to welcome someone whose work has really shaped how we see Texas and someone I've had the privilege of knowing for I guess nearly 30 years now through our shared work and friendships. This is Wyman Meinzer, and he's the official state photographer of Texas. His images have captured the wild. and often the unseen corners of the state like I think no one else has. We first met when I was working with Texas Parks and Wildlife, and so was he. I was [00:01:00] writing and working on ad campaigns, and Wyman was out capturing powerful images alongside our photo editor, Bill Reeves, who just happens to also be my hubby. Wyman may have the rugged look of a frontiersman, but don't let that fool you. His camera lens tells deeply poetic stories, and these days I find myself almost as drawn to his words, so even his social media posts can read like short essays. They're full of insight and emotion and paint pictures that I think are every bit as vivid as his photography.
So I'm
Wyman Meinzer: happy
Oh, thank you.
Elaine Acker: to welcome you. Wyman. I gotta describe you as the man, the myth, and the legend.
Wyman Meinzer: Sounds good.
Elaine Acker: Now you've had an extraordinary career.
Wyman Meinzer: Yes.
Elaine Acker: It started with that degree in wildlife management
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: landed you book publishing opportunities and cover shots on really prestigious publications including [00:02:00] Smithsonian and National Geographic books, time and Newsweek, and Audubon and all the
Wyman Meinzer: things
Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: But I know that behind all of these iconic images, there's a challenge. So my question is this, what is the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome in your work or in life, and how did that really shape what you create?
Wyman Meinzer: Probably living where I was where I do live, where I'm not I, I was never around other photographers, to discuss techniques and stuff. You know, you had to establish your own style, which was really a positive thing in the long run, but it was a long run to get there.
I had to depend on sending imagery to magazines to the editors like Bill and, and uh, David Baxter and Gary Greter Sports afield, and saying, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing right? And then just going from there. It was a struggle there for a few years. And then, you finally get into that, publishing lane, and then it all [00:03:00] just kind of comes together.
But it was not easy at all. I can assure you it was, but it was, it was very fulfilling.
Elaine Acker: Yeah. And that kind of resilience I guess, that it takes to live, we're referring to where you live. So for anybody who doesn't know, well, I'm in this up in the panhandle of Texas. How would you describe the panhandle? How would you
Wyman Meinzer: Well, actually, I, I live in the Rolling Plains, which is just east to the, what they call the delineating line of the panhandle. It's just a lot of, bad lands, country, real broken country almost, archaic looking land. It's kind of a forgotten land.
And of course you got your mesquites and your river bottoms and such. When I first started photographing, no one was coming into this region and shooting. I saw an opportunity to be the one person to introduce the rolling planes to the viewing public. That was my goal at the very beginning was to send my images to Bill and David [00:04:00] and say, Hey guys, what about this as a possible article?
And they went for it. They really helped me a lot through the years. They supported me so much and the rolling planes has been a very positive influence on my work.
Elaine Acker: Yeah. Well, and, and you think about over, over time, I mean, you worked your tush off to
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: To understand photography, to interact with these editors at different magazines and to achieve this extreme level, I would say, of success.
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: Then photography and publishing really changed.
Wyman Meinzer: Yeah, it did.
Elaine Acker: So, talk to me
Wyman Meinzer: about that
Yeah.
Elaine Acker: I mean, what's changed the most
Wyman Meinzer: Well, you know,
Elaine Acker: work today versus then?
Wyman Meinzer: I don't, you know, I don't shoot for magazines much anymore. Maybe Predator Nation. I'll write an article for them. But basically the magazines, I don't even really look at 'em much anymore because that's something in the past and I've just gone on to book publishing and
That type of [00:05:00] thing. And shooting properties for our brokerage firm, which I use the same techniques to shoot properties as I did when shooting for all the magazines. You know, landscape approach, strong foregrounds and, leading elements throughout the photograph.
And it really seems to resonate. At this point, it's just mainly real estate photography is what I do.
Elaine Acker: Well, and I wanted to get into that because to me, that's part of that transformation. It's like the markets have changed and therefore what you do has changed, but you've found a way to leverage every ounce of the power of what you are doing in this new real estate venture.
Wyman Meinzer: Yes.
Elaine Acker: you got into that how long ago now?
Wyman Meinzer: What I think like maybe five years or so, something like that.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: Time passes quickly,
Elaine Acker: of, yeah, all of that, does all that knowledge and skill and, the ability, I think to see [00:06:00] a property through your lens literally
Wyman Meinzer: you know? Yeah.
Elaine Acker: real gift
Wyman Meinzer: You know, in, in a. Like, it's like, when I'm out shooting and you know, I've often reflected on this why that? Well, my approach is the same approach that I use in magazine photography because I have an audience, you know, each magazine like Texas Highways versus Texas Parks and Wildlife versus sports to Field, field and Stream, outdoor Life.
Each of them have an audience. And so I'm almost thinking. Inclusively, all of these magazines, whenever I shoot a property, there's gonna be wildlife, there's gonna be landscape, there's gonna be interior design. I, I pull from all the experiences that I've come away with over the, all the years, that decades of shooting for magazines to shoot these properties.
Elaine Acker: so important to focus on audience because so many people, whether they're, [00:07:00] doing photography or writing, you have this impulse to share the thing that you want to share and
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: you want to share it.
Wyman Meinzer: Right?
Elaine Acker: if you're doing it that way, you're kind of just crossing your fingers and hoping that it's gonna resonate with somebody. Whereas if you put that audience first, you can find a way to speak to them that I think is really personal.
Wyman Meinzer: Well, you know, I think what was important over the years was that in shooting for editors, they depended on the way I saw the subjects. I remember one from New York telling me one time, he said, I love the angle from which you shoot. That you use in your imagery.
You shoot low, you shoot strong. I fall back on those words and use the light, use the angles. Even though I don't have an editor that's, gonna work me over whenever I send them my images in [00:08:00] and say, Hey man, you need to go back and redo this.
But I employ all of those angles in my real estate work, and it's very successful.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: you know.
Elaine Acker: so I'm gonna hold up a stack of books.
Wyman Meinzer: Okay.
Elaine Acker: who are listening, I'm holding a very heavy stack of books. So these are Wyman's books. So if you want to find his work, you can certainly go online and find it. What, what I love about these books, why Iman? Is that it? the talent that you brought to the table, but it's also the people you got to collaborate with.
Wyman Meinzer: Absolutely.
Elaine Acker: this particular one was a collaboration with John Graves
Wyman Meinzer: Oh man, that was, that was,
Elaine Acker: do you describe John Graves?
Wyman Meinzer: John Graves was a consummate gentleman. Just a writer.
Beyond description. I mean, I love his style of writing. Ever since years ago it was suggested goodbye to a river that I should read that book. And I [00:09:00] read that, that book soon thereafter. And it was like, wow, this guy is really a great, great author.
And his style, he could, you know, one sentence was a paragraph, but he could make it all work. I've almost styled my own writing, try to sort of, in his shadow that's as close as I can get to him, is just his shadow but John Graves was just an awesome person to work with.
So talented, so kind and such a gentleman.
Elaine Acker: Well, so when did writing become such a big part of your expression?
Wyman Meinzer: Well, you know, when I, when I started at Tech, Texas Tech in 1969, I remember freshman English, and I remember the uh, Mr. Lightfoot, I'll never forget him, you know, he wanted us to write an autobiography. And so I, I wrote and handed it in and I made a d and I go, wow, boy, this is, this is something. And so I decided that, you know, I needed to [00:10:00] really kind of, up the game here a little bit.
And so got through that and got into the, you know, the course of the literature section of the next English course. And then I got into technical writing and technical writing I could do and, was actually achieving things in it, making decent grades but the writing, I actually started writing when I was a kid.
I still have the stories, true Stories by Wyman Meinzer. I still have 'em in longhand. Some of 'em, one of 'em was 30 pages long and I would write 'em, you know, in the seventh and eighth grade. But what really got me into writing was in, I believe in 1981 when I was working with Bill and David Baxter there at the magazine, and David Baxter asked me to write an article on predators on coyotes.
Of course that was my shtick. I mean, I love predators and, was a professional predator hunter for years after graduation. And so David, I don't know how to write and he said, we'll give it a shot. [00:11:00] So I wrote about a 1500 word piece and handed it in, I believe it was on the yellow notepad.
And David called and he said, Hey, this writing is actually better than some of my guys who write all the time. That really gave me a lift and gave me the incentive to keep trying and uh, it just, it went from there.
Elaine Acker: It amazing how the right person at the right time can have such an influence on our lives and our confidence and our trajectory in life.
Wyman Meinzer: I've met so many people like that, that has just. Elevated me, you know, mentally to be able to have confidence in myself and whereas otherwise, you know, I may have just kind of kicked it off to the side and just said, I can't do that. But they just pushed me and David and Bill both, they were there at just the right time.
It was perfect.
Elaine Acker: So when you think [00:12:00] about, you know, kind of giving that lift, giving that push people who are trying to become photographers and writers now, and again, recognizing that the market and the space for writers and photographers, it's so different. What would
Wyman Meinzer: so different.
Elaine Acker: used to teach at tech for a while, so I mean, what do you
Wyman Meinzer: Yes.
Elaine Acker: who are trying to break in?
Wyman Meinzer: It is so much harder in a way, it would, it's a lot harder than it, than it was just because of digital. When I was teaching at Tech, I made my students up until the last couple of years. I was just adjunct and doing it part-time, but I did for 12 years and I would tell him, you know, I want you to use Chrome film.
That is the teaching moment using Chrome film. You can't, you can't you know, just erase the shot and redo it. It's not a Chimping thing where you can just chimp it and go, ah, you know, I, I'll [00:13:00] reshoot that. You gotta get it right from the very beginning. And I started out with Kodachrome, then Vel, and so
nowadays with digital, I still shoot just like I'm shooting Chrome. I don't just throw up and just shoot and go, well, I'll change it later in Photoshop. It's gotta be on the money in order to get your exposure right. And of course, with auto focus, you know, it's
Gonna be right most of the time with Auto Focus. And surprisingly, I still do a lot of manual focus in my photography. I found that in teaching the last couple years when I had to go to VI Digital, you couldn't even get ve Chrome film anymore. I think you can still get it.
Some people are kind of making a 360 and going back to, to a film, I just found that it made a lot of students lazy. You know, they would say, well, I, I'll go out at nine o'clock instead of being there at Sunrise, [00:14:00] you know, when I was making 'em shoot Chrome film. I go, you're gonna have to be there in the right light.
I am your editor, I'm your magazine editor. I'm your art director, and I want you to get the maximum color. I want you to get the, you know, your, your composition. I want everything to be just right. So whenever they were shooting the Chrome film, they actually worked at it. But once I had to switch over and teach digital, it was like, you could see that they were, they were playing with Photoshop and not really being there at the right time and having to think about the photograph, think about what they were doing, what it was gonna say to the audience.
Elaine Acker: So if we want to give somebody some ideas about how to be better now in this current environment, it's to not
Wyman Meinzer: Right,
Elaine Acker: the surface level experience of automated.
Wyman Meinzer: Yes.
Elaine Acker: You know, running it through [00:15:00] Photoshop.
Wyman Meinzer: Right.
Elaine Acker: deeper and say, I have to show up at Sunrise to get the sunrise. you know, so I think that's an excellent thing because it translates to me in what I try to tell people about writing
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: It's that, yes, we have AI now, and yes, you can get super lazy. So what do you do to learn and build that foundation of your vocabulary and to read the John Graves of the world and to be inspired by those kinds of words?
If you want to be that kind of writer, then you need to put
Wyman Meinzer: Right,
Elaine Acker: your
own. To places and people and situations. So I think that's great takeaway.
Wyman Meinzer: I don't do a lot of it, but when I do, I try to put feeling into it, you know, to where the per person can really go on a, a journey with me
I have to [00:16:00] feel it, it has to come viscerally. And when I feel that need, I may go days without putting a new post up, but whenever I feel that visceral need to express myself, that's when I sit down. And that's whenever I get a thousand likes or, or like the last one I did, I think maybe on uh, on the, the Rattlesnake Air base out at, at at Pyo Texas.
I, I looked at it last night and I had like 4,000 likes, you know?
Elaine Acker: But you're seeing things and showing things that they've never seen, they've never
experienced.
Wyman Meinzer: And that's what's important. I don't wanna,
I don't want to go to places and talk about things that everybody sees. I try to be, you know, my own person and convey, I've been lucky, let's put it this way. I have been very fortunate in my career to have seen things that most people will never see.
Because I didn't go a lot to parks, to state parks. [00:17:00] I would go on private land holdings whether it's archeology, paleontology, historical, structures like the Air Force base that's now abandoned. And those things fascinate me, all these things fascinate me.
And so I try to convey the fascination. The emotion that I feel when I go to these locations, to the readership, because I know there's a lot of people out there that want to, and that are unable to and capable of it, or just can't get out anywhere. They're armchair people.
They're elderly people, but they still love the message and I like to tell it in a manner that, really touches their soul.
Elaine Acker: Well, I think you're doing that
Wyman Meinzer: Oh, thank you.
Elaine Acker: from where you are right
now,
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: and this is gonna be hard because with all the, you know, kind of the accolades you've stacked
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: years, is there anything that stands out to you as, wow, that that was the moment?
That's [00:18:00] one of the ones I'm gonna remember. Forever. what's the first one that pops to mind?
Wyman Meinzer: Oh, well, the one that blew my mind, are you talking about accolades?
Elaine Acker: But Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: Yeah. Yeah. Anything. The, the first one that blew my mind was in 1980 uh, seven. And, and I get a call from my alma mater, Texas Tech from an instructor there that I was as scared of him as I was a cobra. In a dark room.
He calls me up and he says you know, you've been designated the outstanding alum for the department. And, I went, Dr. Wright, do you remember me? And I, Because I was not an outstanding student. You know, let's be real frank about it. All I wanted to do was go to school.
I wanted to get out and do the things that really excited me. And he laughed and he said, Whyman, it's not what you did, what you achieved when you were at tech. It's what you've achieved since you've been outta tech. I [00:19:00] said, you might have the right man,
but he, he chuckled on that one. It was, uh, but anyway, that, That was really a great moment. I really appreciated it so much.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: And, uh.
Elaine Acker: shot you've ever had to get?
Wyman Meinzer: Oh man. Oh, Elaine, there's been so many. That was a struggle. I shot a story on, uh, up in the Yukon one time for sports, a field magazine. I was up there for three weeks and I was telling Celinda last night when it was raining, I said, you know, I remember that day. In the Yukon, I had a 50 pound pack on my back full of camera gear, and clothes for nine days along with three other guys, and we were sitting on a boulder.
We had just ascended a mountain for 15 hours and we had to go down a thousand feet because of a rock slide. I [00:20:00] was sitting in the rain, my boots full of water, my cameras were fogged over and I was sitting there looking at the ground and I told one of those guys, I said, if I ever get off this mountain, I will never come back.
And I haven't.
Elaine Acker: And you didn't.
Wyman Meinzer: I got the story. That's what mattered.
Elaine Acker: Oh, I like your stories too. Tell me another story. Tell me another kind of a standout moment.
Wyman Meinzer: Oh my goodness. oh my word. God, there's so many. I've been to so many places and seen a lot of the places, it's not necessarily the location, but it's the people you meet,
Wyman Meinzer: wonderful people. And so often I've relayed to people that that I visit with that
I could have never achieved this level without the help of so many across the United States,
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: just in Texas, but everywhere. It seemed like there's always been the right person at the right time when I needed them.
And I [00:21:00] wish I had, I could pull up all their names. There's so many, but I can't, but I can see their faces.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: And I'm so appreciative because it had not, they had they not been there, I couldn't have achieved what I did. It really is,
Elaine Acker: how work, you know, writing or. Photography
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: people feel
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: so you know the audience and how it makes them feel. So when you look at this body of work, and let's say we're a hundred years down the road, what do You hope people who see
your images or read your words will feel at that moment?
Wyman Meinzer: You know, I told Lin that whenever I pass and I read this passage in a book called The Wind, when I was doing the Texas guy book. And even though I think it's a fiction book, and I don't generally read fiction, but this was very captivating and I was looking for [00:22:00] passages to put in my sky book under the imagery.
And one of them was will you watch a Prairie sunset and think of me? I said, when I pass, I would like that on my tombstone because it's the light, it's the color. You know, that really excites me. That keeps me going. Like just a couple of days ago I was up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, shooting on a 10,000 acre property for our broker.
And I told, he said, what time do you wanna get out there? I said, I wanna be there at Sunrise. And we arrived and of course I do a lot of drone work now. Drones are just awesome. I'm a commercial drone operator and I lifted that drone up and approach that rocky mountain side or that canyon and that light.
I still, to this day, after 40 odd years, 45 odd years, I still feel the excitement that I did when I first picked up a camera and saw that light and recognized great light [00:23:00] because it energizes me.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: And you can tell by the reaction of the readership that they appreciated as well.
Elaine Acker: Yeah, you made me teary with your tombstone.
Wyman Meinzer: Oh,
so I think about it often, you know, at age 74, you start thinking about things you know, that you used to not.
Elaine Acker: What other books do you love
Wyman Meinzer: I like history. I like the history of, The early day explorers. There's one in particular on my word commerce on the Prairie. Commerce on the Prairie, written in 1856, I believe, and I was able to find a copy of that, of reprint oh my word, the author, I don't recall. I'll, I'll think of it here in a minute when I'm not trying to, but it's Commerce on the Prairie.
It's not a, it's not a a, a large volume book. But it is a wonderful read about a person that came from the East and because of [00:24:00] ill health, when he was young, he came west to see if it would help his, his, and I think his doctor, his father was a physician and suggested that he go west for his health.
And Wow, that guy saw some country, I mean, from Chihuahua, Mexico to Durango, Mexico to Arizona. Across the Panhandle of Texas talks about going along the Canadian and the, and the places that he saw in all of those journeys as a, as a traitor. Trading goods down in the Durango talks about he said the bandits are prevalent here in the Mexican uh, state of Kaila.
Or Durango. And he said we have to have our guns in view at all times. It's the only way that we can be safe.
Elaine Acker: Wow.
Wyman Meinzer: Yes. And that was, that was in 1836. He wrote this in 1856. oh, there's just so [00:25:00] many. I love the Buffalo Hunter books written by Buffalo Hunters, the actual j Wright Moore. Wrote about his life on the, on the, the Buffalo Plains.
I actually helped Jay Wright's gun that his granddaughter still had a 59 sharps that he killed 8,000 buffalo with on the Texas Plains. Yes, I held that gun in my hands.
Elaine Acker: that's a there.
Wyman Meinzer: history. And I, I just love, and, and I think. A lot of my appreciation of history was probably initiated when I was a small boy.
I grew up working on the ranch where my dad was the foreman, a 27,000 acre ranch here in Knox County, and he worked old gentlemen who were born in the 18 hundreds, 1880s, 1890s. And I worked alongside these old gentlemen and I would ask them stories about their lives and what the land was like when they first came.[00:26:00]
It's still today. Those stories still stay with me.
Elaine Acker: Yeah, I bet they do.
Wyman Meinzer: There are so many great books out there. You have to go in on Amazon and just search for 'em.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Wyman Meinzer: But there's so much that's as I say, they're nonfiction and, and just really describe the land that we all pass over now and take for granted.
One time I remember David published a letter that was written to Texas Parks Wildlife. When I did an article on, I shot a piece. On the Rolling Planes of Texas and David and Bill put it in the magazine. It was a photo essay and this person wrote a letter and David published it in the letter section and it said, I never knew that that part of Texas was as beautiful as it is because of Wyman's pictures.
I now see that there is beauty there and my [00:27:00] deal is just stop, you know? And look and go through at the right time when the light is right, and just be a part of the land, become part of the landscape, and listen to the sounds of the land. And not only visually, you know, audibly, just absorb it.
And then you can realize that, that some of the, what seemingly is very mundane country can be very beautiful. And because of David and Bill believing in my work. I've actually think that I've, I've focused a lot of attention from an audience that would otherwise not even look at this part of the country.
Elaine Acker: I bet you're right and I can't wrap it up any better than that. So Well.
let you have the last word right there. Uh, one thing that we will do
Wyman Meinzer: Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: links to everything and let people find you So we'll have it
Wyman Meinzer: Okay.
Elaine Acker: notes have it on our blogs so that
Wyman Meinzer: Okay.
Elaine Acker: go discover
Wyman Meinzer: Thank you. [00:28:00] Mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: sort of kind of expand their, their horizons, so to speak.
Wyman Meinzer: Well, I appreciate that.
Elaine Acker: I,
Wyman Meinzer: Well, it's,
Elaine Acker: thank you so
much for,
Wyman Meinzer: thanks for having me.
Elaine Acker: Yeah. Sharing your time and your stories and,
Wyman Meinzer: You bet.
Elaine Acker: I
Wyman Meinzer: It's,
Elaine Acker: you know, your work gives us, like we said, not just a view of Texas, but a feeling and what it means to
Wyman Meinzer: mm-hmm.
Elaine Acker: closer to the land and to see that beauty that we can share it in images and words.
Wyman Meinzer: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Elaine Acker: preserving your, your little corner of the state.
Wyman Meinzer: I appreciate everything. Appreciate your kind words and, and, and thanks for having me on.