Radical Wellbeing Studio by Veronica Eastell

Sweet tender moments with Rach & Iain 🖤🥹

If you're an Alex Cameron fan, you'll know 😂🕺

Wanna get photos with your bestie / loverrr in your genuine joy? Slide into my DMs for intel on winter specials running for Auckland in July & August. We'll make somethin together that'll warm your heart & soul in these chilly months.

Let's wander streets and shoot the shot together!

If you're an Alex Cameron fan, you'll know 😂🕺 Wanna get photos with your bestie / loverrr in your genuine joy? Slide into my DMs for intel on winter specials running for Auckland in July & August. We'll make somethin together that'll warm your heart & soul in these chilly months. Let's wander streets and shoot the shot together! #radlovestories #couplephotography #couplephotoshoot #alexcameron #belovedstories #engagementphotography #engagementphotos #aucklandphotographer #sydneyphotographer #nzphotographer

Throwing back to 2015 — Product shots for Bancho overall & embroider patches.

Throwing back to 2015 — Product shots for embroidered patches.

Throwing it back to 2015 — Product shots for . Feat embroided patches and Matt Powers collab workshop gloves.

All the smokey vegetables & winter sunlight, makes my heart drool.
Yes, a heart can drool, I've decided 🤤🖤✨

When the photographer has become the model !

Cooking cabbage, but make it sexy... 😂

strutting it stuff on this Sunday's fire cookout.

Such a cool experience to reconnect with what used to be a normal weekend task in my past life in the South Island, and share it with a dear friend who is totally nerding out on for her own new creative obsession!

Two photographers (also recipe developer and both foodies), one fire = very cool results, two vastly different captures, equally rad in our own ways. Really humbling, really reassuring that community is everything for us creative entrepreneurs.

P.s DO NOT underestimate the DELICIOUSNESS of simple smokey olive oil, garlic, cabbage. Phwwooooarrr I was doing the food dance for sureee 🤤

Is it a true childhood portrait without chocolate or mud on your face? 😂 Or how's a good pull of the cat's tail? Uh oh!

Not every portrait needs to be a fancy event, in fact, my ethos is that it's really the small everyday moments that are truly the underrated gems, and are worthy of celebration! When you think back on life, where are the most precious moments of growth as a family? Home. Maybe they're not all perfect, but they sure are potent.

Intimate & imperfect moments at a family home (or, backyard & studio in this case) are such a joy to capture, and a treasure to have years later. It's a real "fly-on-the-wall" style, where I get to quietly follow, listen to stories, and beam my focus around constantly observing the small details that represent the story of the family's character.

The innate trust in welcoming a photographer into your home builds a level of openness that a shoot in a public space can rarely create. Having this container of vulnerability to start with creates a huge advantage to capture the most authentic essence of both connection and individuality of family members, showcasing the unique dynamics and comfort. It's truly precious!

I want to do more of this style of family home portraits over this year. Due to the intimate nature of this style, I don't get to post these types of images often— so thank you to L, C & little J (Tui & Zues too 🐕🐈‍⬛ ) for your trust in my process!

If you are someone who appreciates the magnificence of small, everyday details of your home and family, please reach out. Especially if your house is a reflection of your character, with my background in architecture & design I sure know how to document all your efforts.

P.S I'm not strictly Auckland based 😉

Today, I'm heading to the ol' stomping ground of Otago purely to spend a week at General Service coworking space🏔

As someone with a disability thats directly affected by stress and over-exertion, I plan my workload a month in advance (at least). So, when I was blessed to capture the wedding of the incredibly fun Nikki & Anton in February, I instantly put that leftover covid-airline-credit and booked myself a co-working getaway!

For both my professional creative energy and my personal capacity, there is nuthin' like being surrounded by like-minded people, lakes, and mountains to soothe the soul and recharge after long days of focus— and square eyes!

I'll also get the time to put my branding vision into practice after years of pause. My brand has always been inspired by my experience of living in the South (both NZ & American), the backcountry, and retro travel adverts 🤓 It's always harder to do branding for yourself than for others, so let's see if I can flip the role and treat myself to the level of creative service that I love to do for others!

Without giving away too much, below is a tiny outtake from Nikki & Anton's wedding Sneak Peek gallery. I can not wait to deliver this job, I'm so grateful to have such awesome clients 🥰

Different pubs, different days, same beauty.

Hard not to capture shots when I'm sitting across the table from Tegan 💘

When the landscape is as magical as the soul you are photographing... 🥹

A blissful evening frolicking fields of flowers with Torii, back in 2019.

And the walk out. It's the small details of moss and frozen branches that made everything feel magical, leaving our camping spot in the freezing cold after walking in during 30°c+ heat the day before. That's the Appalachian mountains for ya!

I wish I could share the first image larger, it's a vortex of magic swirling focus. It draws me in often as my desktop background, and it's even better in large print 🤍
Hmmmm that sounds like a good idea 🤔 Watch this space 😘

Fairy land 🧚‍♀️❄️✨

To follow up that sweet post here's a few shots of friends in their glow-mo —a term I made up for those moments of life when everything in you and around you feels like it's in slow motion, when gratitude glows strongest.

Those moments when everything feels gloriously small and intimate while at the same time expansive and flowing into one huge existence.

All captured on a night when I managed to round up my closest friends for a camping mission in the Appalachian mountains. It was below freezing ❄️

The first shot was completely unplanned, when a car came around the corner almost as if by request, perfectly highlighting my composition.

Hunting through the forests of geothermal wonderland to find a perfect little spot to ourselves.

Nothing like a hot river to soothe our muscles after a few days in the mountains ⛺🥾🌲

Teaching Elleysha the vital camping skills, starting with the coffee rituals. Including my well-travelled mug, & grinds! ☕

Also featuring the gooseneck kettle that I carried home from Portland, Oregon back when we couldn't find them in NZ. Which has also been repaired multiple times due to so much love 🤓

Sitting down to prepare and wait for your drip, especially on frosty mornings in the great outdoors, is something special. 💛

Forever honoured to capture Michelle in her whole, explosive, contagious joy 💥🌊

She's a firecracker, can ya tell? 💙✨

As soon as I get to a city, I want to get to know it, like I would a good friend. I want to have a good ol’ DnM with it. Walk its streets slowly, looking up at buildings for signs of ages, down for footpath changes, around for human diversity, expressive styles and demographics.

I later sweep the internet for social geography information; firstly stories of indigenous history, followed by colonial history, of growth patterns over decades, of struggles & booms past & present.

On my second day here in Sydney, I sought out a local women-owned, indigenous-owned tour company. I was fortunate to be led by Amanda at — An incredible human on her journey retracing her ancestry, language and culture, and who fostered an incredible conversation of re-connection for our group. Amanda fostered connections between each of us (from across the world) between our own identities, our homelands, and the land we were walking on.

In my mind I imagine the layers of geology, the stone, the loam, the soil pulled together between rows of housing, little tickles of knowledge about why this land even exists; thousands of years ago rivers flowing, seas changing, tectonic plates uplifting new mountains. Now, streets & buildings hiding original shorelines. Streets of diverse global people, set down by the settler state. Yet, these are streets that Aboriginal people with 80,000+ years of land guardianship knew and respected as equal to a living being of their family, now (uncomfortably) ‘adorned’ by colonial stone laid with crushed (literally, 1st pic) evidence of their pre-historic fishing practices, seen as rubbish, used as glue. When really, these piles were the diary of regenerative practices over those thousands of years of kinship with the ocean. A practice which each roaming family left behind a shell in a stack as evidence of what they’d eaten, so as to alert the next travellers to not eat the same; an immensely smart way of protecting their saltwater family from being overfished or over-harvested.

If we look hard enough, the land, the plants, the animals and now the buildings, are all trinkets on a charm bracelet of history — bound together as one.

It's about time I introduce myself! There's so many angles and stories to share with you how Radical Wellbeing Society (and studio of) came about. But, I'm starting reeeeal small, with names (and a sassy self portrait to boost, of course) 💃

So, hi! I'm Veronica, affectionately known as many names:
“Vrondonsilverton“ for the explorative and mischievous party pirate (importantly without the pillaging!) that I can sometimes become;
"Rondawg" for my outdoor dirtbag alter ego that braces me with courage for skating cities and down hills, surfing waves and conquering mountains on two wheels;
nowadays it's most commonly "V" / "VRon“ from the loving homies;
the OG is "Ronnie" from the most innocent connections (shout out to my Nan) that has withstood all alter-egos and explorations of self over these three decades;
simply, "Ron" from the comforting big sisters;
"Lil Bert" from the late aunty Elaine (my other mother and soul guide) yet lived on through uncle Lew;
and finally the ever-evolving "Weasley"/"Weasel"/"Rodent" from particular friends that have clearly known me too long and show love through a bit of sh*t banter (I'm looking at you ).

Yeah, so, my mum is a smart women, but she gave me this "pretty name, in hopes it was one you couldn't shorten"... well, jokes on you Rita! 🤣 I've got more nick names than many I know

Now you're in the know, I'd like you to chose what name calls to you, or which aspect of my various layers of character that you know best, or simply make up your own!

Nicknames are one powerful yet ignored tool of connection - an assertion of how we want to relate to one another and be related to. Nicknames can help us to shape the container of friendship and define the space we hold between us.

Fun, lighthearted, formal, informal, short, long. Maybe you like "Veronica" because it rolls of your tounge nice, or for the way it makes me feel a little fancy. Maybe you shorten or mix up a few because you've met me recently, as a renewed version of something grown and different to all of the above.

Let me know below what you know me as, or which name you enjoy the story of most!
Do you have any nicknames?

3 of 3: Untitled Series, 2010

Lamda Fine Art Print,
Dimensions; 1200mm x 1200mm / 47" x 47"

I've always loved the underated delicate midtones of silver in this image. (It's a huge shame I can't figure out how to save it from quality destruction on Instagram 💔 )

A soft self portrait, The Fall Inwards; The moon self, the innerworld, the emotional grounding. All directions at once. Simultaneously powerful as she is delicate, an ethereal presence. Embodied duality.

A piece that I still beam with pride for a decade on.
NZIPP Iris Award winner, 2010
A larger-than-life print originally hung on an angled wall, overbearing the viewer. At what first looks like smoke, upon further enquiry, the viewers begins to be pulled in, to figure what this vortex of landscapes or smokes truly is... A foreboding feminine energy, an authority of the body ownership.

2 of 3: Untitled Series, 2010

Lamda Print:1200mm x 1200mm / 47" x 47"

The center piece; an exploration of the women's world. The divine feminine connection; as smooth as silk, as subtle and circular as a the smoke of twisted incense curls, ever connected spiraling upwards. A vortex of curves, a sphere of mountains, landscapes of interconnection, waves of infinite reciprocity. A young women's (I was just 18yrs old!) delve into processing what it means to withhold the feminine energy in an objectified world.

1 of 3: Untitled Series, 2010

Lamda Fine Art Print,
Dimensions; 1200mm x 1200mm / 47" x 47"

A self portrait, Falling Upwards;
The rising self, the external, the social, the public self.

My kind of parking battle 😂🛶

Canoeing for three days through towering walls of ferns. In awe with .williams_ 🌿

Taking it all in, one small drop at a time 🌿

September 2020

Frosty mornings at the rug workshop with the evergentle

3.July.2020

Part III - Crisp morning rays shining light on this community's warmth for one another. An appreciation for the slow moments in between.

Behind the scenes for the creative powerhouses and / @ Wellington, New Zealand

3.July.2020

Behind the scenes for the creative powerhouses and / @ Wellington, New Zealand

08.March.2020

It's these little moments 💓

Nothing beats this sense of community. The sisters, the brothers, the frothers.

Special thank you for your mentorship, knowledge-sharing and cheerleading. You're facilitating bravery and courage for more womxn to find their inner baddass, and it doesn't go unnoticed. We appreciate you!
🙏

@ Auckland, New Zealand

08.March.2020

Local girl skate crews are making ripples that I'm totally committed to flowing with.

I've been fortunate enough to work with many groups around the USA thanks to , and now in my homeland of New Zealand.

This movement is about busting the intimidation at parks and in access to learning resources. It creates socially safe and inclusive spaces and pathways for women to give skating a shot. It includes men, but is first and foremost about a sisterhood of support for individual womxn to enter into a male-dominated community. Once in, there's no stopping the creativity, the personal growth, and the shared froth across all genders 👊

Behind the scenes, post-skate hangs are the biggest resource - the knowledge sharing chats, mentorships and non-judgmental questions. This is the value of community.

Finally getting to meet .cruiser.girls for an skate was epic. Thanks for having me! @ Auckland, New Zealand

06.Sept.2019

And just as I thought it couldn't get more magical.. the light shine so strong through the trees, through the waterfall mist, touching the sparkling stones at the bottom of the pool meters below.
We both sat in silence, feeling small to mother nature.



@ Asheville, North Carolina

06.Sept.2019

Asheville summer dreaming.
Finding waterholes deep in the humid forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains. All to ourselves.

06.September.2019

Asheville summer dreaming.

Mountain waterhole magic surrounded by that trademark North Carolinian green glow

06.Sept.2019
Nearing a summers end in Midnight magic.

Entering yet another piece of paradise.. a waterhole of the brightest aqua, this time on the North Carolina-Tennesse border.
Exploring with
@ Great Smoky Mountains National Park

02.March.2019

Behind the scenes is where the family vibes are built in every sport. These down times are the moments I capture most intuitively.

I'm always there, hollering before the first kick and hooting for the last slide. For my closest crews -




@ Asheville, North Carolina

04.Nov.2019

Helen pt II


@ Dunedin, New Zealand