Hello dmarrduncan,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. It looks like you're having a question about including metadata when transferring your photos, and we'd be happy to provide some guidance.
To get started, please check out these links:
Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or PC
"Some content—including shared albums, smart albums, photo stream content, live photos, some metadata, and photos and videos stored in other folders or locations—is not transferred at all."
Transfer a copy of your iCloud Photos collection to another service
Also, check out the "Apple recommended" section in the following posts:
Losing Metadata when use airdrop
How Do I Move Photos & Retain Metadata?
import photos with metadata !
We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.