Need help with simple photo software

Greetings. I am new to the forum, and am VERY glad I found it! I have recently come back to Mac after about a 10 year hiatus. It's nice to be back, operating smoothly without crashing...

I am an avid photographer, taking large batch photos of 100-200 shots at a time (shooting my kids at the park, etc...)

When I get home, I used to just plug in my camera to my desktop PC, it would acknowledge the camera and ask if I wanted to download the images. I'd say yes, and tell it to "move" the images to a certain folder (Downloads, etc...) The PC would clean off the card as it moved the images. Then I would rename the images with the date they were taken. I would use the scroll over EXIF data viewer to see what the date was (in case I had some older photos on the card I hadn't yet captured, and had forgotten when I took them.)

After that, I would select the first image, and use Microsoft Office Picture Manager, and view the photos. I would be comparing 10-15 (or more) photos that are nearly identical, except for the faintest difference in expression on my child's face. I needed the full-screen (or very close to it) view of the picture to see the details I needed to make my decisions. I could quickly delete the inferior photos, then crop the good ones. I could immediately "save as" the cropped/edited photo to my "to print" file for later processing.

Now that I'm on a Mac, I feel out of place.

For starters, there is no "move" function in Finder, so that leaves 200+ images on my memory card that I have to manually select/delete/confirm on my camera!? If I "move to trash" the files, they card gets FUBARed and I have to format it. (I did that ONCE.)

After I get them onto my MacBook by simply "copy/paste" to a folder (Pictures/Family Pics/2008, etc...), I have to rename them INDIVIDUALLY!? That just about killed me. There is no feature in Finder to select 200 pictures and "rename" them all to a standard name, with sequential suffixes?

I have tried to use iPhoto, but I really don't like how it takes over control of so much, and would rather use a simpler program to view/edit my photos.

Any advice?

luckily for you os x comes with automator.app, you can do all that batch rename, move, delete with it

Right. I did manage to figure out how to use automator to rename files, but I don't know if I did it the best way, or really how to do anything else with it. It took HOURS to figure how to do the one simple task of renaming.

Anything that makes this process faster/easier?

Actually, iPhoto IS the simplest way to view/edit your photos! That is what the software is made for -- it's whole job in life! Batch changing of names, etc. is available, the software keeps all events (photos taken at the same time) organized, and allows for enormous amounts of further organizing. Keywords are certainly a plus, too.

I feel like if you think you don't like it, you just have not given it a chance, Get rid of the PC way of micro-organizing and make your life so much easier. Explore iPhoto capabilities and I think you will like it a lot.