Reply screen design / element placement for tablet app

This mobile tablet app displays full screen photos with a reply button. When the user (a senior over 65 years of age) clicks reply, a modal reply screen slides up from the bottom as shown below.

Question #1. Should the photo be represented on this reply screen and if so how large? Current design has a 25% scaled version of the photo which takes up a lot of screen real estate and adds clutter, but it's there because we're targeting seniors.

Question #2. For reply, I have a text input box and also the ability for the user to select from a list of canned responses. There will be no more than 10 generic ( i.e. non-AI) responses available. Currently they are in a scrolling vertical table view above the text input box to the right of the photo. Is the table view the optimal way to present the canned responses, or would a picker work better (ios) and should this be above or below the text input box?