If you’re using Word Press and using your website to highlight your photography, and you decide to use a gallery plugin to help you with that, here’s a pro tip:
Don’t use the photo gallery plugin’s media upload. Instead, use the native media library in Word Press to handle uploading and management of your images and their meta data.
Some plugins don’t allow you to access photos outside of it being instantiated. If those images are in the media library, you’ll always be able to use them in more places than in just the gallery. You can put all the meta data that you want on the images that will always be used with them, wherever they get used. Most photo gallery plugins will allow you to individually adjust images and meta data when you create a gallery, if something unique for that specific gallery is needed.
Most software operates on the hostage model- they want to capture your data or content and force you into a subscription or fee to access it or use it. This is why most photo gallery plugins want you to upload through their system directly. It’s better to manage in the CMS (Word Press in this case) and keep control. Only use the photo gallery plugin to make the gallery presentation itself.