No matter what I do, I keep getting these 403 errors, saying I don't have access to the directory. This happens even right when I try to access the setup.php file--when I haven't even had time to do anything wrong!
Any ideas on what usually makes this happen, i.e. is it a server issue, am I uploading the files to the wrong area, what is it and how can I fix it?

does your server support php?

what happens when you put a .htm file in your directory.. does that show up?

does anything else on this server work?

My host is SiteGround.com, which uses PHP 5.05. I put a test in the directory (www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/test.htm) and that works fine... but when I try to go to soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/zen/setup.php, it says it's forbidden and I do not have permission to access it on this server.

Also, I've changed the permissions on /albums and /cache to 777...still nothing. I feel like I've followed the directions, don't know what the deal is. Has anyone else had this 403 forbidden error right at the setup.php page?

It looks like a permissions problem on your server somehow..

It looks like it is something with your webhost..

Example
www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/test.htm works but www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/zen/admin.php gives you access denied. I notice I can access other directories such as www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/themes
or
www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/albums
but when I go to
www.soniakaneart.com/zenphoto/zen it get a login to site builder. and it can be any url
like I tried www.soniakaneart.com/zen1/zen2/zen and it still took me to the page..
it looks like your webhost has a redirect with any url ending in the path zen.
I would contact your webhost to see if they can disable that for you.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give it a try!

You were right-- my host happens to use the folder name "zen" in their sitebuilding tools, so it is blocked from users--who woulda thought. So support renamed it "setup" and it works now!

Anyway, thanks for the help, there's no way I would have ever figured that out!