Welcome sports fans to a world record event—well, maybe just a personal best. In just 45 minutes, I made a “Play Hard” photo book, celebrating my daughter’s softball team. That’s from first photo selected to hitting the “save” button. Add in another seven minutes to post the book to Shutterfly Gallery and you have an “under one hour” record.

Of course the time it takes to make your book is not the only measurement of success. Since I have NO TIME and a pile of books I want to finish (including a video catalog book of my video art projects as well as last season’s softball book) getting this book done quickly and to my satisfaction is indeed an event.

Here’s the Blue Diamonds 2008 season book. Take a look and I’ll take you through the process.

“Play Hard” is a “locked layout” book. The design of each page has places for photos and text on each page. You can’t change the number of pictures for a background—they’re locked together.

Start by reviewing the 20 default pages and count how many pictures, and what kind, you will need to make the book. “Play Hard” was designed to celebrate the cycle of a season, starting with practice and then going through games and players so you can chronicle each aspect.

I had 84 pictures total. Some photos were taken by me and some by my friend Tarq (Claire’s dad). I placed all the pictures in an album, labeled Softball 2008. To begin with I looked for action shots, especially ones of my daughter, Miranda. I chose as many different images as I could and when there were shots that described a sequence (like Miranda throwing) I chose them all because I could either use them in a row, or scatter them throughout the book. There were about 30 single shots of players in action. I chose 23 of them.

As I made the book I highlighted some of the cool action shots, like Miranda about to throw out a runner at first (right-hand page), and mixed them with casual shots, like Claire with August (left-hand page). I wanted to adopt the atmosphere of the book’s design—to celebrate the season.

I also found that putting several shots of different players together made it easy to tell the story of the season. It was so simple to take these five pictures and drop them into the “Achieve” spread and show action, game faces and to give a real sense of the team.

Sometimes a sequence of images can say more than an individual shot. Both the two images shot from behind home plate and the sequence of players high-fiving the other team are much better shown together, than apart.

On the right-hand page the three shots work together to show the progression of excitement at the end of the game. And the image on the left is moments before the Blue Diamonds are about to cheer “2,4,6,8, who do we appreciate” to the team they had just beat.

I want to note three other books created using the “Play Hard” locked layout book from scrapbook designer Kerri Bradford. Each creator takes the format and the design elements and makes it into a unique personal statement.
 
Consider the work of AmandaProbst, a serious photographer and creator of two books, for two of her three sons. Play Hard (Asher) is 20 pages of fun and joy. The complement is the book she made for her other son,
Play Hard (Noah). These books demonstrate how the locked book can make creating something personal and outstanding extra easy because all you have to do is fill in the blanks.

On another level (and putting my book to shame in terms of photography and thematic excellence) is Softball Season 2008 by my partner in marketing at Shutterfly, the fabulous LaraH. She takes the thematic structure of the book seriously and really delivers on images that match the spirit of the book perfectly. While I was reacting to each of the titled sections, she was shooting to fill those areas with dynamic and expressive photography.

Go ahead and take your best swing at my record. See if you can dethrone the Whammer! Seriously, find the ways that work for you and get that project done. Make yourself happy and when you share, see the smiles grow.

For more locked layout books with different themes, check out our Creating Keepsakes templates.