iCloud Photos

I monthly pay for 200GB iCloud storage and know I am not late in my payment, yet my phone has 35GB of photos not stored in iCloud but in the device storage when 1) iCloud photos is turned on 2) i know it still has enough space. I am currently doing an iCloud backup but it's been hours and it's written 14 hours left.

Is there anything I am doing wrong? What else can I do so the photos store themselves in my iCloud storage and not in my device storage?