How can I de-folderize the contents of a folder?
Currently I'm sitting at an older Mac (running 10.6.8), but if I use the folder view where I see the sidebar and search field I can:


Type anything into the search field to activate it
Constrain the search to the enclosing folder
Click the little circle with the plus to get more search options
Choose "Kind" is "Document"
Delete the text you typed in to activate the search field


What I get is a list of all documents in all the folders inside the enclosing folder, recursively. You could then select all of the files and copy or move them to a new location.

Or -- since we are talking about Photographs -- if your have Adobe Bridge you can set that to show the contents of sub-folders when looking at a folder, then use Bridge's move or copy commands.