I don't get the impression that the author is particularly disappointed by this state of affairs, though. Their passion seems to be less in the photography, and

I don't get the impression that the author is particularly disappointed by this state of affairs, though. Their passion seems to be less in the photography, and more in the collation and organisation of images - and if they can't get enough images themselves, they'll go out there and take them. My impression of the post was that they seemed positive that other people are doing this work - and far better than the writers - leaving them to get on with doing other things. I guess it's similar to the tradeoffs of moving from doing a particular job, to managing others doing the job. Yes, you're less hands-on, but if you do your job well, you become a force-multiplier for other people, which for some people can be much more rewarding. I know another active Wikipedian photographer, and I get the impression that, while he enjoys the photography, the joy for him comes predominantly from the use of the photos, rather than the experience of using them. If he didn't need to take photos, I imagine he'd find some other, similar way to satisfy his archivist urges.