Hi @justjoy, that's only an indication of one's reputation. I try and post at least 3 times a week, wish I had more time! Having more steempower is what makes one's upvotes higher, so I power up all the time. I will copy how @kittygirl explained how one builds up reputation here on steemit.
About photos, you have to download it from your email onto your laptop or phone, will likely be stored in the downloads folder.
Good idea if you use your cellphone for photos, to go to the settings and let all photos taken with phone camera be stored on google photos. Much much easier as you can't lose your photos ever.
Here's what @kittygirl said:

One mostly gains reputation points here when folks with higher-rep upvote your posts. Only a very small percentage of it comes from authoring posts and commenting/upvoting others' posts. I know several people who joined the site months after we did who have a 60-rep-or-higher because they've been rubbing shoulders with dolphins & whales. A couple of them only make two or three posts per month, but their high-payouts on those posts earn them several times over what you and I earn in a month here. Some of the attention from whales & dolphins is accidental (the result of the subject of their posts, which attracted bigger players), but some of it was intentionally done to boost themselves faster.