I decided that instead of having to deal with self hosting or cloud solutions to just use local apps and sync them. Syncing Syncthing manages the syncing Passwords Keepassxc for desktop Keepassdx Mobile Note taking and documents Obsidian Neovim and PAndoc doc Photos Native gallery apps Mpv I might do a post about it
Syncthing is the way, especially for OP's photography. My film scans spit out TIF files that can be north of 100MB. Editing those files on a network share is unpleasant. But Syncthing keeps local copies of the files, so editing a photo inside a Synthing folder is like editing a normal file on your computer - because it is.