Have been looking at various website template providers (blu,bf, cmd, marathon, etc) and none mention how their sites fare with search engines.

Are they all the same, or are there some that are more search engine friendly than others, or is it up to the photographer to go into the pages and optimize them?

The problem with all flash websites from a SEO standpoint, is that they are all one page. Flash is a Movie and the separate pages are really frames of that movie. That is why the URL in the web broswer address window is always the same regardless of what page you are on in a flash website. Html websites that embed flash components - while limiting as far as the whole visual and uninterupted audio experience is concerned - are more versatile in the sense that separate physical pages can be created for each flash element. However the contents like text etc that are part of the flash, may not be visible with search engines (some improvement is being made to attempt to extract it). So with most of the completely flash websites, you can control your page Title (which is the currently important for SEO) and META tags for the main website, but not for pages that are part of the website.

That lack of SEO is the main reason for the craze in Splash pages, which are really a bad concept from a web design standpoint as they are one more hurdle for the viewer to encounter to reach your site. They are howevr an html webage and so can include body text and other search engine specific content. Surprisingly most Splash pages I see are basically only images or image maps with links to other websites and so are just as useless from a search engine standpoint.

Rob's correct.

That is why you see some sites with a html non-flash main page with a lot of keyword laiden text and links to their wedding site and blog.

So is that why it's better to have a splash page, another page for the engines to index?

Everything out there is either HTML or flash - why can't we have both? To me, the best option would be to have a hybrid page: html page with flash elements. Now of course you'd have to be wise and not make everything on the page flash based (ie. keep much of your text in the html). This way, you get the multiple pages and be more attractive to the engines.

At the moment pretty much the only way to have this is via a custom built site. IMO this is the way to go and if you use a designer/developer with the right set of tools you can even have the flash part that you can manage yourself. It's really just a question of finding the right site producer.

Eventually, someone will develop this as a cookie cutter solution, it's just not around as of yet... or at least I haven't come across this.

You are right. That is the best way from a practical standpoint. Flash elements work perfectly inside an html page (many photographers who have my CrazySite are using flash components in the pages). The problem for many though, is that you loose out of some of the functionality of Flash that makes it grab your attention. One of the foremost ones has to do with all of those photographers who feel the need to have music playing in the background during the whole viewing experience. While there is no problem with the music in the flash movie playing while on one page, as soon as anyone goes to another page of your website the music ceases. One of the other things that many photographers like about Flash is the expandability of the window area and having images stretch out to fill the page and then shrink down. It can still do this within the html page structure, but the problem is that it is difficult to get the html page to do this (can be done in a clunky way with javascript). There are a few other goodies that would have to be compromized also. But indeed - flash components in html pages is considered by many web designers, to be a superior method for making use of flash than simply using a full movie - it allows for many real pages for optimizing your website for search engines, and also Forces the designer to NOT Force the viewer to have to either wait for the long loads of the flash component if they choose to not go to the pages with flash, and also to not have to listen to background music they don't want to listen to.