Is Javascript the best way to go when doing a ... photography portfolio site?

Those are all very different technologies that don’t really compare to each other. Actionscript is for Flash obviously, which I would not recommend for doing an entire web site in. HTML is the foundation of all web sites so that one is important. PERL is a server-side scripting language and is used for things like e-commerce sites and content management systems. Javascript is a browser-side scripting language that will allow you to do what you are looking for, but you don’t really need to learn it. VI is a text editor, not a language. CSS is also important and goes hand in hand with HTML.

For the Javascript fancy zooming in thing, all you need is this script. Just download it and follow the directions (simple HTML) and it will do the fancy zooming that you are looking for. If you want to have an automated way to upload and manage a gallery you can go with server-side scripts such as the ones here.

Or you could of course just put them on Flickr and let them manage all of it.

Thanks a lot!

would you happen to know what this script is?

http://www.officesnapshots.com/2008/04/21/the-diggcom-tour-office-snapshots/

That is Highslide JS.