New owner of phone and I need to get admin access! I have a Samsung Galaxy SII that I got from work. When I got it it was on a vodafone plan and linked to the work gmail account. I left the company but bought the phone off them, returning the sim card. 

My new sim works fine, but the phone seems tied to the old email account. I can't update many of my apps as I am prompted to enter the password for the work email account which I dont have! When I try to remove that email it says I cant as it is required by some apps and I will need to do a factory reset.

Is there any other way I can get control over the phone? If not what will I need to save before doing the factory reset? Im not fussed about reinstalling apps but should I save all my pictures etc first?
Is that an Exchange email? Then YES, removing it will trigger a Factory Reset. This is standard operating procedure, for security purposes (of the company).

As dotVezz said, you should back-up all your data (pictures, documents, downloaded files, etc). To back-up your apps and its data, you can use Titanium Backup; needs ROOT. Just to be on the safe side, also copy the Titanium folder (contains apps and data) to your PC. After doing a Factory Reset, just restore the files with Titanium Backup (which you'd need to download from Google Play after the Factory Reset).