Hello and welcome, neighbor! I agree about not quilting in the photos. I've not done a panto with stopping and starting around misc. photos. I'd suggest outlining the photos, then doing freehand quilting.

Welcome from Oklahoma. I wonder if you might just do a little something around the edges of the pictures just to tack them down a bit.

Hi and welcome to the board. There is absolutely no reason you can't quilt over the photos. Most are done with inkjet printers so it does not change the characteristics of the fabric like those rubbery type T-shirt emblems can. It won't hurt your machine and if the quilt is going to be done with an E2E panto it won't look "weird" or "stupid" to treat the photos like the rest of the quilt and quilt right over them. I have yet to see a photo quilt that was used and laundered regularly have the photos last. They tend to fade a lot. So I would think once the quilt is a couple of years old it might look more weird to leave the sections with photos unquilted. JMHO

I just went out on pinterest to see photo quilts and here is a link to get you started, showing that it doesn't detract from the photos to quilt over them:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/140526450853337010/

If you use a fine thread like 60 wt, or better yet an 80 wt like Wonderfil's decobob it should be fine.

Welcome from Michigan!:)