If you're making a sports photo book or team photo album yearbook for your child's favorite sport, you've got your work cut out!

Calling all soccer Moms! Or baseball Moms! Or, gymnastics, ice skating, hockey, track Moms! Whatever the sport, the chances are that you spend a lot of time cheering your child. So, you probably take a lot of pictures. Now the question is what to do with all those photos... and if your photos aren't very good, how can you take better shots?

When you're done here, you might want to check out some of the sports photo albums ideas and templates here, or check out how to make a gymnastics team yearbook!

Choose a Theme That Fits Your Child's Motivation

If your child plays a lot of different sports, it makes it a little harder to figure out what to do with his or her sports photo book, since there can be a few different ways that you can organize the pictures.

Depending on how far along your superstar is in school you can either choose to focus on all the sports from one year, or focus on many years of one sport. Whatever focus you choose, it is important to be sure to organize these pictures. Check out the Make Your Own Photo Book Primer.

Getting Ideas for Your Sports Team Photo Book

To get ideas to use in sports photo books, interview your child to see why they participate in sports. You may be surprised at the answer. My daughter enjoyed gymnastics because she came home from the gym totally sweaty and worn out. Pictures that capture that theme could be included in any book for her. If your child mentions improvement, you can use that theme with your book and pictures. The preparation and practice that goes into the sport is another aspect to investigate when making your photo books.

Now that you're ready to make that Sports photo book, you've really got only one obvious choice for a photo book printer: Jostens/OurHubbub.com. This site is run by the famous yearbook printer (where your child probably gets his or her school yearbooks made), and here they have the best selection of sports books anywhere!

You can shop elsewhere, but when it comes to sports team photo books, there's not another publisher that comes close. Not only are the covers phenomenal, but OurHubbub has every sport featured in its own themed sports photo album. Many of the books come in all three styles: Fun, Modern and Traditional.

Here's a quick list of just their sport photobook themes you'll find atthis printer:

Any Sport: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Baseball: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Basketball: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Cheer: Fun, Modern and Traditional

DanceLine: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Football: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Golf: Fun and Traditional

Gymnastics: Modern and Traditional

Hockey: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Lacrosse: Modern and Traditional

Martial Arts: Modern and Traditional

Running: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Skiing: Modern and Traditional

Snowboarding: Modern and Traditional

Soccer: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Softball: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Swimming: Fun and Traditional

Tennis: Traditional

Track & Field: Modern and Traditional

Volleyball: Fun, Modern and Traditional

Wrestling: Modern and Traditional

Taking Better Pictures for a Sports Photo Book

Most cameras have something called shutter lag - which is the moment you press the shutter to when your camera actually takes the picture. Shutter lag can be the difference between getting action shots and missing them.

Here's how to "trick" your camera into overcoming shutter lag:

Anticipate the action. As you watch the game, try to see where things are headed, so you can be ready for an outstanding play or reaction.

Press the shutter down lightly, about halfway. This will lock the focus on the subject of your photo. This lets you take the picture much faster because the focusing process will already be done.

Perhaps, you can stack the odds and take as many images as possible and keep the ones you like. That way, you don't have deal with any blurry photos in your sports photo book.

Panning. If you want to showcase some motion you will need to do a technique called Panning ?moving the camera in the same direction as your in-motion subject as you shoot. This approach produces a photo with a motion-blurred background and a sharply focused subject.

Close-ups help you show the emotion of sports. Use your digital camera's zoom mode or macro to get these intense shots.

When shooting indoors, it is extremely important to hold the camera steady. The best way to do this is to use a monopod. The monopod is easier to use and carry than a tripod and creates a steady hand when shooting under those low light situations.

Go from Sports Photo Book Ideas to the Make Your Own Photo Book Idea Center.