Those first two days are a whirlwind of newness, love, and tiny details you’ll never get back.

A First 48 session, sometimes called a Fresh 48 session, takes place during the first 48 hours of your baby’s life, often while you and your baby are still at the hospital or birthing center. It’s about remembering your baby’s very first hours exactly as they were, not perfectly posed, but honestly and beautiful.

This is when your baby is still perfectly wrinkled, curled up from months in the womb, and adjusting to life on the outside. Their tiny cries are still new. Their little fingers instinctively wrap around yours. It’s a season measured in hours rather than days, and it passes faster than most parents expect.

How Is a First 48 Session Different From a Newborn Session

While both sessions celebrate your new baby, they tell different parts of your story. A First 48 session focuses on documenting the very beginning. Rather than carefully posed portraits, the emphasis is on genuine moments, meaningful details, and the environment where your baby’s story began. A traditional newborn session usually takes place several days or even a few weeks later and often includes more styling and posing. They simply preserve different memories. One captures the very beginning, while the other celebrates those sleepy first days at home. If you can, I always encourage both because each tells a beautiful part of your family’s story.

What Gets Captured During a First 48 Session?

One of the things families love most about First 48 photography is how it preserves the details that disappear so quickly.

Some of the moments and details often captured include:

• Hospital bracelets
• Tiny fingerprints and footprints
• The little hospital hat
• Fresh newborn wrinkles
• Tiny fingers wrapped around yours
• The bassinet beside your bed
• Name cards and announcement signs
• First feedings
• Siblings meeting baby for the first time
• Quiet moments between parents and their newborn

It’s often the little things you don’t think to remember that become the hardest to forget. Years from now, you’ll probably remember how you felt but these photographs help you remember what it looked like, too.

What Does a First 48 Photography Session Look Like?

Once your baby arrives, you’ll reach out when you’re ready, and we’ll find a time that works during your hospital stay. The session itself is relaxed and typically lasts between 30 minutes and an hour. There’s no pressure to have everything perfect. You don’t need a spotless room, a sleeping baby, or a detailed plan. My goal is simply to preserve this chapter exactly as it unfolds, the room, the people, the tiny details, and all the love that’s already there.

Why Those First Hours Matter More Than You Think

Every stage of your baby’s life is worth remembering, but there is something irreplaceable about those first hours. By the time newborn portraits are taken days or weeks later, so much has already changed. The wrinkles begin to soften. Tiny legs slowly stretch out. The hospital bracelet comes off. The bassinet is wheeled away. The room where you first held your baby becomes a place you’ll never stand in again. What feels ordinary today quickly becomes impossible to revisit.

One day, the hospital bracelet will be tucked away in a memory box. The tiny hat won’t fit anymore. You’ll struggle to remember just how impossibly small they were in your arms. These photographs bring you back to the very beginning – to the room where you first met, the quiet moments in between, and the first chapter of your family’s newest story. Because every story has a beginning, and this one deserves to be remembered.

-Aspin