Copying an image from one server to another

I am trying to: - check whether an image file exists on a server, - check whether it does not exist on another server, and if not exists - to copy from the first location to the second. I am using cURL. First step to capture the image from the first server. When I return this image to the browser I get a lot of strange characters. So has this captured the image and what do I use next to upload to the second server? I was trying to use file_exists and had problems referencing the file location as "http://wwww.mysite.com/pic.jpg". But I know I can also look at using readfile() and file_put_contents(), $fp = fopen(), fputs(), fpassthru() etc. What is best way?

       // create a new cURL resource
       $ch = curl_init();
       $url="http://wwww.mysite.com/pic.jpg";
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
             // copy the handle
       $ch2 = curl_copy_handle($ch);
             // grab URL and pass it to the browser
       curl_exec($ch2);
             // close cURL resources, and free up system resources
       curl_close($ch2);
       curl_close($ch);