Hi, I struggled to follow the instructions above and ended up with an empty selection box like Paddy.
The simple solution I used was to first draw my shape on my page and then place my photo on the same page overlapping the shape. Next I selected the photo and using edit, cut my photo. Then I clicked on my shape so it was now selected. Finally I went back up to Edit and on the drop down menu selected Paste Inside.
This allowed me to drag the picture around inside my shape and resize it, when I was happy with that, clicked on some blank space and then was able to drag my new shaped picture around.