Look in to PHP for sure.

I like to have physical pages for my stuff. Dynamic doesn't do well for SEO so here is what I do...

Create a subdirectory called "portfolio". Under that you create pages that are named for the pages they represent. IE.. "modified-nationals-2007-the-girls.php" and then create a same name directory "modified-nationals-2007-the-girls" with a thumbs folder under that "modified-nationals-2007-the-girls\thumbs"

Place a portfolio.php file in the root web folder. This PHP file should read all PHP files in the portfolio folder and put them in a list. You can then manipulate the names for several purposes. Strip the extension ".php" and you have the appropriate subfolder name. Add "\thumbs" and you have the thumbs folder name.

First, you can create the menu. Strip the dashes, capitalize the text, place them within hyperlink code and place them in a list. Menu done.

Inside each portfolio page, the code will retrieve the filename and create the thumbs path, read the list of files within the appropriate thumbs folder and display the thumbs with links to the larger image. The page title and H1 text can be read from the filename also, strip the dashes and capitalize the text.

What you will be creating is a sem-automatic system. No matter what you do, the basics have to still be done, but the coding will be done for you.

The basics are... copy any portfolio page you want, rename it to the appropriate new name, create the same name subfolder and copy all the images, then create the thumbs subfolder and copy all the thumbs. Your done!

The portfolio page will automatically read the new portfolio page. The copied and renamed porfolio page will now automatically retrieve it's new name and appropriate thumbs and full images.

Sounds involved, but it's a great learning experience for basic PHP techniques.