Building a Photography Portfolio with Next.js

Building a photography portfolio website comes with unique challenges. You need stunning image presentation, fast loading times, and a smooth user experience. Here's how I tackled these challenges with modern web technologies.

Tech Stack Overview

For this project, I chose:

• **Next.js 16**: Latest version with App Router and server components
• **Tailwind CSS 4**: New version with improved theme configuration
• **Sanity CMS**: Headless CMS for managing photos and blog content
• **Framer Motion**: For smooth animations
• **Vercel**: For hosting and CDN

Why Next.js?

Next.js provides several features that are perfect for a photography portfolio:

Image Optimization

The built-in Image component automatically optimizes images, handling responsive sizes, lazy loading, and modern formats like WebP automatically.

Server Components

Server components reduce JavaScript sent to the browser, improving initial page load performance significantly.

Implementing the Ken Burns Effect

One of the standout features is the Ken Burns slideshow on the homepage. The animation slowly pans and zooms across each image, creating a cinematic feel.

Lessons Learned

1. **Optimize everything**: Large images can kill performance
2. **Progressive loading**: Use blur placeholders while images load
3. **Server-first**: Render what you can on the server
4. **Keep animations subtle**: Let the photos be the star

What's Next?

I'm planning to add:

• Print store functionality
• Advanced gallery filtering
• Image comparison slider for editing tutorials

Building this site was a great learning experience. The combination of Next.js and Sanity provides a powerful foundation for any content-heavy website.