Frontend
React is a declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It lets you compose complex UIs from small and isolated pieces of code called “components”.
Next.js is a React framework that enables functionality such as server-side rendering and generating static websites for React-based web applications.
TypeScript is a strongly typed superset of JavaScript that adds static type checking. It catches errors at compile time, improves code quality, and provides excellent IDE tooling — making large codebases much easier to maintain.
Styling & UI
Tailwind CSS is a highly customizable, low-level CSS framework that gives you all of the building blocks you need to build bespoke designs without any annoying opinionated styles you have to fight to override.
Shadcn/UI is a modern UI library providing lightweight, flexible components built on Radix UI primitives. It powers the sidebar, dropdowns, and sheet components throughout the site.
Framer Motion is a production-ready animation library for React. It powers the smooth fade-in and slide-up animations throughout this site using spring-physics easing for natural, high-quality motion.
Lucide is the open-source icon library that supplies the interface icons across this site — navigation, the theme toggle, the carousel arrows, and action buttons. It provides a clean, consistent, and fully customizable set of SVG icons through the lucide-react package.
Backend & Auth
Google Firebase provides the backend infrastructure for this site — Firestore for the real-time NoSQL database, Firebase Storage for photo uploads in the gallery, and server-side admin authentication via the Firebase Admin SDK.
NextAuth.js handles Google OAuth sign-in, session management, and secure callback flows — allowing users to log in with their Google account to access features like submitting feedback, leaving comments, and liking photos.
Deployment
Vercel is the cloud platform this site is deployed on. It provides instant deployments on every Git push, automatic HTTPS, edge caching, and zero-configuration hosting perfectly suited for Next.js applications.
AI Development
Claude is an AI assistant built by Anthropic. Claude assisted throughout the development of this website — from writing and debugging code to architecting features, refining UI interactions, and ensuring best practices across the entire codebase.