Thank you for the warm welcome

Now I'm just wondering how I can collect merit so that I can also upload pictures

just like what coin-investor have said, you are already a copper membership, you do not need merit or be a jr. member in order to post images, additionally, you can now also add your signature to your profile. as for how to post images, here is a
tutorial thread on how to do it, that thread also shows you how to make you image clickable.