I used Dreamweaver to build my website because I didn't need a content management system. However, if you are that familiar with Wordpress, I agree that you might be best off just using a Wordpress template.
Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, DotNetNuke...they are all about the same and all are content management systems designed mainly for text, but their are lots of third-party templates that are specifically designed for photographers.
For my image shows I use Galleria.
http://galleria.io/. About a year ago, I dropped flash because I could see the writing on the wall and switched to HTML. Galleria is javascript-based and relatively easy to figure out (although their technical support really sucks). There are many similar programs out there.
My website is a constant work in progress and I use it as a learning tool. I'm not entirely happy with the design, but I keep experimenting and learning.