hi guys how do i write query to pass to next_album() loop
looking to get a set of sub albums to display one a page.

while (next_album()){
}

You would have to code your own functions to do this. The next_album() function is intended for stepping through the list of subalbums in order.

Of course you could skip subalbums you are not interested in by code within the loop. But you would be better off fetching the subalbum list from the album object, pruning it to the list you want then going through that list to display them.

Take a look at the object model tutorial and the documentation.