Yeah... it does stink about the meta-data ... but if you're careful how you name your photos, that should help search engines anyway!
Did you save all the images from your other sites? (right click download to disk?) You should also be able to save any page as a PDF file for reference later...
There are lots of hosting companies out there that are good and inexpensive many of which provide you with site templates and setup - if you want to go that route.