Oh, WOE is me!

I'm doing a crash course in iPhone (5). Here's the problem:
It says there's ~16GB of internal storage, but I'm down to ~ 1GB.

On looking through the options (silly me, I thought there was a storage card inside it)
it seems I can ONLY back up to an I-cloud ---- or something like that. Thing is, there are NOT that
many pictures in the phone (a couple of dozen or so). What the [cheese*] is it storing?
What would I even be able to upload?

Any pointers would be appreciated. I have already decided I would NEVER - no, that's too soon - get an
iPhone.

Why all this bother? The person involved is a visitor, with a Nikon Exilim capable of 14 MP output that is
ABsolute CARP, and an iPhone that's significantly better (and even with less MPx). The first has ACRES of
storage, the iPhone not much left.

Ta.
Am(a bit like ).
*You may choose another word.