iCloud photo

If you are using iCloud Photo Library, your photos would be both on your phone and on iCloud. You can delete any of them but they will be deleted from both your phone and from iCloud (and any other device where you have turned on iCloud Photo Library). The version on your phone may be the full size original or a space saving optimized version depending on whether your turned on the Optimize iPhone Storage option and also depending on the free space on your phone. If you turned on the Optimize Storage option and want the full size originals back on your phone, you can change to "Download and Keep Originals" if you have the space available.

iCloud Photo Library is a syncing service. See: iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support

Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.

Oneoldcoot wrote:

Ok let me get this right. I not knowing what I was doing give apple access to all my photos. They take them all off my phone then hold them hostage in a cloud that is in china. I cannot load these photos on my pc with out additional software,I cannot delete them without losing them on my phone. I cannot access them in a way I can understand to see which ones they have.All the above coupled with an update that forces me to use a pass code and a sick touch screen that is not covered. All addup to I will NEVER buy another apple product again.

None of that relates to anything that I posted and none of that represents how your photos should be on your phone or how you transfer them to a PC should work. There is no Apple service or option that should take your photos completely off of your phone. As I stated:

The version on your phone may be the full size original or a space saving optimized version depending on whether your turned on the Optimize iPhone Storage option and also depending on the free space on your phone. If you turned on the Optimize Storage option and want the full size originals back on your phone, you can change to "Download and Keep Originals" if you have the space available.

If you post more information about how you "unknowingly (first time iPhone user) loaded on the cloud" I may be able to help. What options do you have turned on in Settings > [username] > iCloud > Photos?