iTunes sync management I have an iPhone5 that was synced to a PC when I first got it.

I had an older BlackBerry that had hundreds of pictures and I wanted them transferred to the iPhone which is why the sync happened. I had a friend do it, and now I'm trying to upgrade the phone to iOS 8 but I don't have enough space.

I tried to delete some photos but I noticed that hundreds of these photos are in albums that are labeled "from My Computer" and are unable to be deleted.

I no longer have access to that original computer that synced the photos, what can I do if I want to keep the photos, but remove them from the phone?
Right now what I'm doing is emailing each photo to myself, that way I have the actual photo file in a non-locked-down format, and then syncing the iPhone to a new computer with 0 photos to clear the previous sync.

I find this restriction from Apple rather backwards logic and not very user friendly. Why lock down photos? They aren't copyrighted MP3 files or MP4 files, they are photos that I personally took, and the fact that I can just email them to myself to create new copies of the file shows that this security lock down isn't secure at all. Disappointed with the decision makers on this one.