TLDR: Want an easy way to share some, but not all, photos between family members -- and create merged photo albums from vacations.

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I'm here because I'm looking for something that I can't seem to find an easy solution for. I'm wondering if I'm on the right track with one idea though -- and I'm definitely open to other suggestions.

My wife and I each take a lot of random photos and screenshots and things we don't want to share with each other (and we probably don't want to be bothered with each other's random stuff), so we don't want to just do something like turn on Partner Sharing on Google Photos.

However, when we go on vacation and each of us takes photos on our own phone, it would be great to merge those into one nice album to go through and keep the best photos.

And then there's the one-off photo or two we'd like to share with each other from time to time.

I'm looking for something to make that easy.

My only though right now is to leave Google Photos as the main storage location but then also set up Synology Photos or some such solution. But I haven't quite put together how that solves the problem.

Note: Free is great, but I'm willing to pay for a professional solution... Prefer one time costs as opposed to expensive subscriptions though. Also, I am very tech savvy. I can set up whatever is needed.

Thanks for any suggestions!