Very much depending on where you live, perhaps there's an outdoor group that you haven't considered or --- haven't connected the right sort of "subset group".

Where I live we have the Mountaineers, a very large group with somewhat of a mountain climbing focus, but they do all sorts of things.

I find that mid-week hikes tend to go on the slow and easy side, because it's mostly retired people who can get the time off to do these. There's also a "naturalist" group within the club, and these folks do classes and walks where the focus is on flora and perhaps occasionally fauna. They stop a lot to look at plants and overall their hikes are pretty slow.

What you might find helpful is to connect with camera buffs who also like to hike, as they --- like you --- will tend to have slower pace and will similarly like to stop to take photos along the way.

I think the only one who can decide whether you'll speed up is you. You might, but you might very well also have a natural pace that's slower than "average". Nothing wrong with that!!
Doing some (more?) hiking around home and working some to keep your gear light (still safe, but lighter) will perhaps help.