I attempted to search the forums already, so feel free to send me links
as opposed to answering again, if the answer is already elsewhere.

I have a 12 page booklet that I wanted to use spot UV on all the
photos. The only way I found to place a spot UV on only photos was to
create the spot color in each photo using the "new spot channel" option
in Photoshop CS2 (my only other option I saw was to duplicate all my
photos, use a clipping path and then fill that with spot color, all
within IDCS2, which I didn't even consider doing).

Isn't there a more simple way or putting a varnish or spot UV on my
photos?

The bigger issue was the fact that in the areas I did use the spot UV,
it knocks out the rest of the artwork! I set the ink to "transparent"
in the Ink Manager, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Any help is
appreciated. I really need to learn how to set up spot Varnishes and
spot UV, becasue I plan on using them more frequently in the future.

Thanks.