I think it’s incredibly important to backup your photos onto some form of removable media, tuck it away somewhere safe. This is in addition to your Time Machine or cloud backup.

Personally, I periodically backup all my photos to a single removable drive and store the drive in a safe deposit box.

All that said, this is a terrific article, with detail on prepping for backup, locating all relevant files, importing/moving as needed, and more. Worth reading and passing along.