Hi Joachim_L thanks for your reply.
TO illustrate my point, as you suggest, I'm attaching three botanical images that are portrait in their original orientation, and meant for inclusion as portrait images within the landscape layout.
For each of these images, the placement process automatically rotated them by 90 degrees. It's frustrating when you need to upload hundreds of these things, and then have to correct each one after the upload.
I understand that the Affinity algorithms might be challenged in interpreting how the photos should be oriented, because plant closeups can, indeed, be confusing.
If that's the case, Affinity shouldn't force it. I appreciate the effort of trying to make things easier for the end user. But if it's not yet smart enough to do it right, there should be, in my humble opinion, an option to turn the feature off. It's driving me bananas.
Thanks again for the response.