Blank page instead of error message, any advice to fix this?

[arossphoto]

I don't know if anybody here can help me with this, but I paid a programmer to develop a custom vBulletin add-on and he has left me with a product that has a few bugs and no support.

It's a member photography portfolio system that allows members to upload images to their own portfolio. The system is searchable by specialities, nearest major city, etc, and I can set image upload limits for each user group. When a member exceeds the limit they are supposed to receive an error message, but instead they are getting a blank page.

I didn't write the code and I'm not a programmer, but I found the section of the php file that refers to image uploads and the "portfolio_directory_maximages" error message. I'm kind of hoping that maybe it is something simple like a missing bracket, semi-colon, or something like that.

Here's the code and if anybody could have a look at it to see if everything looks alright I'd really appreciate it. Thanks very much.

PHP Code:

// Begin uploading image
        if(!empty($_FILES['userfile']["name"])){
        
                    // Count total images
                    $total_images = $vbulletin->db->query_first("SELECT count(imageid) AS total FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "portfolio_directory_uploads
                                                    WHERE portfolioid = " . $vbulletin->GPC['portfolio_id'] . "
                                            ");
                        // Have they uploaded to many images already?
                        if($total_images[total] > $vbulletin->userinfo['permissions']['portfolio_directory_image_limit']){
                            eval(standard_error(fetch_error('portfolio_directory_maximages',$vbulletin->userinfo['permissions']['portfolio_directory_image_limit'])));                            
                        }
                    
                    // Get Image Upload Functions
                    require_once('./portfolio_directory/functions_portfolio_directory_upload.php');
                    $image= basename($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'].$ext);
        }
        
        // Update Portfolio
        $vbulletin->db->query_write("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "portfolio_directory_portfolio
                                    SET    categoryid = '$categoryid',
                                    specialties = '$specialties',
                                    firstname = '$firstname',
                                    lastname = '$lastname',
                                    company = '$company',
                                    address = '$address',
                                    city = '$city',
                                    province = '$province',
                                    postalcode = '$postalcode',
                                    nearest_major_city = '$nearest_major_city',
                                    phone = '$phone',
                                    fax = '$fax',
                                    email = '$email',
                                    website = '$website',
                                    description = '$description'
                                     " . iif(!empty($image),", image = '$image'") . "
                                    WHERE userid = " . $vbulletin->GPC['userid'] . "
                                ");
        
                if(!empty($_FILES['userfile']["name"])){
                    // Save New Image
                    $db->query_write("INSERT " . TABLE_PREFIX . "portfolio_directory_uploads
                        SET image = '$image',
                        image_title = '$image_title',
                        portfolioid = " . $portfolio_id . "                    
                    ");
                }

// Redirect user
$vbulletin->url="portfolio_directory.php?" . $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'] . "do=manage_portfolio&userid=" . $vbulletin->GPC['userid'] . "";
 eval(print_standard_redirect('portfolio_directory_portfolio_added'));
}