Image Manipulation Problems

[eluser]Helmet[/eluser]
I'm having the same problem. I'm attempting to copy the uploaded image to a new location with a new name before doing some other things with it. My file structure is

/application
/photos
/system

..and photos is fully 0777. This is the code I'm using (in /application/controllers/file.php):

Code:

function resize($filename, $target_name){
    $config['image_library']  ='gd2';
    $config['source_image'] = 'photos/uploads/'.$filename;
    $config['new_image'] = 'photos/live/'.$target_name;
    $config['width'] = '300';
    $config['height'] = '450';
    $config['maintain_ratio'] = TRUE;
        
    $this->image_lib->initialize($config);
    if(!$this->image_lib->resize()){ echo $this->image_lib->display_errors(); }
}

I've tried all of these with no success:

$config['new_image'] = '/photos/live/'.$target_name;
$config['new_image'] = './photos/live/'.$target_name;
$config['new_image'] = '/full/path/to/photos/live/'.$target_name;

Result:

"Unable to save the image. Please make sure the image and file directory are writable."