Tony I have to say I quite liked it. I asked a non photographic friend to view it and they thought it was informative and easy to navigate with plenty of pics in the gallery. They liked the isolation of the gallery also. But they did not like that they could not find a link from the galleries to the home page. Pressing the back button can be a pain.
I agree that a designer may be of some help but the trouble is, some get so pre-occupied with the design impact that they can lose the whole point of the site which is your work. Choose wisely when taking this option.
Also I would take out the, 'He is a new..' bit and replace it with something that will cement confidence in your target client. The images speak volumes yes, but saying you are new to this will deter some people.
Overall very good. Home page a bit out of balance to the eye though...left bias? or is it me?