If I drag pictures onto a USB stick etc. From my computer / laptop, can someone else use the USB stick to understand who the pictures were played over? Perhaps based on the IP address, does it transfer it to the USB when transferring the pictures or videos?
No.
No, that is basically not possible.
However, metadata is stored in many files, e.g. With images With which camera they were made (sometimes even including the serial number), with which program they were processed, with some file types (e.g. Office documents) may be. Also the name of the creator or the Windows user name. From this metadata, it is possible to draw conclusions about the author.
The copying process on the stick itself can't be traced, but whoever created the original files may already have.
Thank you very much ☺