My photography business grew out of my dog blog, wagmorevt.com, and my work experience as a photographer. For over ten years, I was a photographer for nonprofit organizations. My images were published in newspapers, tourism publications, and marketing materials, both in print and on the web. To help guide one of those nonprofits, I began the blog to learn the blogging platform. I chose dogs as my blogging subject because I felt that was something I knew about and that it would be a topic that others would enjoy, too.

With a need for blog content and my dogs as my muses, I focused my camera lens on them. I’ve almost always had a dog: My three dogs were all adopted through Golden Huggs Rescue. 

I have been a photographer practically all my life. I was first published when I was 9 years old. However, I only recently began creating greeting cards and somewhat seriously selling my work. In the spring of 2018, a friend was opening a shop for natural fiber clothing of her own designs—Product Think Tank in Waitsfield, Vermont—and asked me for sheep photos to decorate the shop. I designed my first greeting cards from my library of dog and sheep photos to sell at her shop.

My greeting cards and photo prints are currently sold at Artisans’ Gallery and at Product Think Tank, both in Waitsfield, and cards are also available seasonally at the Pro Shop at the Sugarbush Resort Golf Club in Warren. Additionally, I have a small Etsy shop, RSilbernagel Photo. I will be at Waitsfield UCC’s Merry Market with my cards and prints on Saturday, December 7 from 10am–3pm.

My photography style is journalistic in that I try to tell a story with my images. I aim to use my camera as a tool before I shoot and not rely on post-editing, despite my training in Adobe products. I shoot both digitally and on 35mm film. I’ve found that shooting film keeps my process more thoughtful.

I photograph people, too. For the month of January 2020, selected portraits from my project photographing legislators with their pet or in their “happy place” will hang in the Vermont State House cafeteria. I currently work in the Office of the Clerk of the House in the Vermont Legislature. The portrait show, titled “Home District,” came about after many of the members saw the images of my dogs and favorite Vermont places on my screen saver. The members would then tell me stories about their pets and favorite places. They also encouraged me to show my work. I put those two things together and came up with this portrait project.

To view the legislator portraits online, please visit my artist’s page on Facebook, Represent: Vermont Lawmakers in Portrait. 

Look for more of my dog photos on my Instagram, @skimor.