So, how’s this for a start: I’ll post randomly from my huge list of unblogged photos, until I’m all caught up. Chronological order? Completely overrated.

Today, I bring you 4 humans, 2 dogs and a lakeside park. I bet you can’t guess which girl is planning to become a vet

So I’ll start with Deb, Scott and their 3 beautiful girls. Remember Asha? The one who was a baby at their wedding? Yeah, well she’s all grown up now

Here are my favourites from their family session at Blackbutt. Enjoy!

Just over a year ago, she was diagnosed with a malignant and aggressive brain tumour.

Since then, nothing has been the same for Dainere, her parents Yvonne and Stephen, and her siblings Nalani and Jarrett.

You can read all about it in her book, “You have to go through a storm to get to a rainbow”, which launches this week. It’s an adaptation of Dainere’s blog, where she continues to write with extraordinary maturity and candour about her journey with cancer.

I was able to spend a couple of hours with Dainere and her family while I was in Canberra last weekend, and I feel so blessed to have met them! It’s rare to see this much love, courage and humour in one family, and seeing it in the face of such adversity leaves a lasting impression.

Anyway, enough words. Here are some photos, all taken in or near Dainere’s home. Also starring Tinkerbell and Theodore. Enjoy

Thanks so much to the Anthoney family for welcoming me into your lives to have these photos taken! I feel richer for having met you. Dainere, I’m sorry I can’t make it to your book launch, but I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic, and I can’t wait to read all about it on your blog!

Thanks also to Carol Duncan from 1233 ABC Newcastle and Tess from the Starlight Children’s Foundation for making this very special portrait session happen. Twitter helped, too

In the lead-up to Dainere’s book launch, her story was featured on Stateline recently. Click here to check it out.

To buy Dainere’s book, click here. Proceeds will be donated to brain tumour research. I’m off to pre-order mine now

Waaaaay too cute

You might recognise Nat and Mel, who recently welcomed Jadzia into the world! This shoot was their gift to Nat’s mum last mother’s day. Enjoy

Oh yeah, Joey was a ring-in for this session too

Ok then

Here’s a family shoot I didn’t get around to sharing before Christmas. Enjoy

Glen and Beth have been missionaries in Papua New Guinea for most of their daughters’ lives. Now Ruth, Hayley and Alice all live in Newcastle for study and/or work, while their parents soldier on alone in PNG.

There aren’t enough words to describe how hard this must be for them, so I won’t even try. All I’ll do is share a few of the simple portraits we took last time all 5 of them were together in Australia.

Happily, they’ll all be together again in a few weeks, for Alice’s wedding Can’t wait to share those photos with you

As often happens, baby Zion stole the show from his parents. We took a few photos at home before heading over to King Edward Park.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to say hi in the comments

Wedding photos won’t be much longer

They were all taken at Blackbutt Reserve.

Enjoy