Hi Phil,
Not sure and how you would sell your photographs, see some bird photographers websites for good examples, ie Hugh Harrop, Alan Tate and Jack Levene. I know some of these have learnt how to use HTML or JavaScript coding.
Personnally, I have a small website, that is just intended to show my passion for bird photographer and the like, I used tripod.lycos.co.uk as the host as it was free. Though I am currently constructing a website for birding, I have choosen to go with 1and1.co.uk as they are currently offering a good deal for people like me who don't have time to learn codings just yet, they are offering several basic, though good, software packages to build a website (said to be worth up to £400, including Frontpage 2003 and NetObjects Fusion 8) and offer excellent technical support. It is 5.99 a month, though try fasthosts.co.uk too, as they are only 3.99 (special offer) a month for basic, but large, hostings.
The best web software to use is Macromedia Dreamweaver along with the other Macromedia software titles (flash, fireworks and director), though also look at Adobe, as imageready and golive are both good packages. All these titles are for advanced users, sadly beyond my capacity, though given time you could construct a great website using these programs.
Interested to hear other peoples views on this too,
all the best