I use a combination of Wordpress for the core blog with the K2 mobile theme providing a template framework, which has some AJAX features for ease of use. The orginal default Wordpress theme was designed by Michael Heilemann and he is now the lead on K2. Michael can be found on his website Binari Bonsai. I have yet to decide on a gallery system other than using Flickr for storage and linking back here via RSS or using the Flickr API with the Tantannoodles Wordpress Flickr plugin. I am still working on getting the API link working for Tantannoodles.
Summary:
Wordpress is a PHP based blog which uses a mySQL backend to store news and configuration.
K2 is the theme uploaded into Wordpress providing the look and feel of this blog.
Flickr will provide the gallery.
Also looking at a Falbum integration with K2 but not having luck yet. It looks like wiki will need to help me with the mods required and I was trying to avoid code mods!