Unable to find image in iPhoto

iPhoto 11 MacBookPro and iMac Snow Leopard
I import photos from my camera or flash drive or image capture to a folder on my desktop. I then rename all the photos with a sequential number. This works great for any photos I want to store in Dropbox or other media other than iPhoto.

I then import the photos to iPhoto. Once in iPhoto, I delete the desktop folder with all the images.

Here's the rub: once I delete the folder on my desktop, the images I just imported show in iPhoto, but will not open "cannot find file". The only way I can do anything with these photos in iPhoto is if Ieave the images in the folder.

ideally, I'd like to rename, import to iPhoto and delete the folder from which they came.

I'm quite sure that photo is taking your file photos as the root file when you put them in a folder the first time. When you delete the folder, iPhoto can find that root file.

In Iphoto go to iPhoto menu->prefences->advanced->check off "copy item to photo libary"

Now when you delete your desktop files you can access the originals!
Good luck!

no more lost pictures

That's awesome -- no more lost pictures!