I may be a little late in replying, but will add this anyway because I'm sure others might have the same question. I get a lot of people who ask me to set up small and inexpensive sites for them (even though I much prefer to design large, expensive websites). The first thing I ask them is how computer, Photoshop, and internet savvy they are. This is really important because it is very easy to place yourself out of your league technically if you make the wrong decision. I'm assuming you might want to do your own updates, build galleries and upload photos, maybe add a blog, what's new page or trips reports, etc.
I've got sites set up on SmugMug.com and ZenFolio.com and with both of them its difficult to tell that the sites are automated, idiot-proof template driven sites. If you want to keep things clean and simple and add all the bells and whistles, this is definitely the way to go.
I also am using Joomla a lot for customer sites and I love it. But someone needs to set this up for you and it isn't nearly simple enough for the lay-user. I like to customize. Creating a site that doesn't scream JOOMLA is not so easy to do. Its not all that easy to update either. A photo gallery doesn't come with the basic Joolma install and it needs to be uploaded, installed and configured before you can use it. Even when set up at the most simplified user level, there are many menu options that you will never use. Unless you're pretty internet literate, you'll end up paying someone to do a lot of the work for you. Once its all set up and you learn the interface, you can have a really nice professional site. I set up a lot of sites this way for people who plan to build big sites, can do a clean job of inputting text and photos themselves, but don't have any design skills or the budget for a really customized site. Then I bill them hourly to fix the stuff they mess up, which happens all the time. They just get frustrated learning the process.
I'm also helping a friend with a site where she is using ShutterBug. I haven't gotten too deep into it yet, but so far I'm not too crazy about it. Feels a bit too formatted and hard to customize.
To me, all the template sites look very generic and overloaded with "stuff" unless you do hire someone to clean them up and customize them.
Another option would be to hire someone to set up a simple HTML/CSS site using optional programs like Coppermine, Gallery, SlideShowPro or even SimpleViewer. You could also add some really nice Flash galleries like those found on OhMyFlash.com if your website designer is Flash literate. There are other programs like ImageFolio that offer full e-commerce options, but setting up a site like that could be much more expensive and overkill for your first website.
It really comes down to how much money you want to spend, how you want the site to look, how much work you want to do yourself, and how much you REALLY are going to update it. In spite of all the qualifications, I tell all my clients who can't afford me, to go to SmugMug or ZenFolio. Look at the "Pro" plans. They are very inexpensive and on both those sites are amazing.
Please do send up a link when you're all done.
