I know this has been written about before but I have tried all the fixes and I still am not getting it to work.

When I try to upload an image in a K2 item I get the following error code:
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /home2/pkollel/public_html/administrator/components/com_k2/lib/class.upload.php on line 4856

The files i 500kb - there is no reason for it to be timing out. It only happens in certain categories. I haven't made any changes to my system to prompt this error.

Please help!

Please check your server's upload and memory limit. You can see this in K2 -> Information.