I have basic HTML and CSS experience and recently put together a photography portfolio with a website builder. It works for quickly sharing photos in several categories, but the built-in blogging features are poor and managing or rearranging images is becoming tedious.
I'd like to add a simple blog, create individual gallery pages, and eventually manage my curated photos as adjustable albums rather than manually updating every page. The blog will also be image-heavy, so I need a clean way to upload, organize, reorder, and display groups of photos as grids or slideshows.
I installed Piwigo and like its album and file-management features, but I haven't found an easy way to embed an entire album into my site without linking images individually. Would it make more sense to rebuild the portfolio and blog in WordPress, or is there a better workflow or tool for combining a blog with album-based photo galleries?
4 Answers
Before installing several plugins, try building a small test site with WordPress’s native media library and gallery blocks. That may be enough for the landing page, about page, gallery pages, and blog. If you upload a large number of images, remember that WordPress stores them by upload date, which can become awkward to manage. A media-folder plugin can make that easier later.
The main problem seems to be that the current site builder and separate gallery tool are fighting each other. Since the blog is photo-heavy, moving the portfolio and blog into one platform will probably save time and prevent duplicate uploads. You could also consider an all-in-one hosted site platform if you prefer less plugin maintenance, but that means giving up some control over how the photo library is organized.
WordPress is probably the best fit here since it handles both blogging and media management in one place. You could start with the default block editor and its image or gallery blocks before adding plugins. The built-in gallery block even supports a basic lightbox.
For a lightweight setup, themes such as Ollie, GeneratePress, or Kadence would be reasonable starting points. If the media library becomes difficult to organize, a folder-style plugin such as FileBird can help. For more advanced albums, grids, masonry layouts, or slideshows, FooGallery or NextGEN Gallery are worth comparing.
I’d keep the portfolio, blog, and photo library in the same content-management system instead of splitting them between a site builder, Blogger, and Piwigo. NextGEN Gallery is worth looking at because it can organize albums, reorder images, and place complete galleries into pages using a block or shortcode. Pair it with a simple theme and the standard Gutenberg editor, and the workflow should stay fairly straightforward.
I checked out NextGEN Gallery and it looks close to what I need, especially the album organization and display options. I appreciate the theme suggestions too.
That matches the direction I’m leaning toward. I only have six pages at the moment, most of them galleries, so rebuilding everything in WordPress should be manageable. The main thing I want to avoid is having to manually update every gallery whenever I rearrange my photos.