How to control file location of iPhone pictures?

Question

I have invested a lot of time into figuring out a smart way to combine Apple's approach of handling images (database-driven) with the approach of all other services (file-driven) but was not successful yet. I really hope you can help me.
Problem: I take a lot of picture on my iPhone and want them to be:
in a useful location on my drive based on events (e.g. Pictures/Christmas 2013/IMG_123.JPG) which enables me to use file-based services like dropbox
in iPhoto
My problem: if I attach my iPhone and start iPhoto, I can import images from the iPhone without any control over where they are placed on the hard disk.
I tried several ways to work around this:
Find the images in the iPhoto Library folder and move them --> iPhoto doesn't find them anymore. Unfortunately it doesn't ask me where to find them but just shows an error symbol.
Export the images and reimport them --> A lot of manual effort + I loose some timestamp information
Hack into the SQLite DB of iPhoto --> I managed to update the imagePath in iPhoto but then found out that the location is additionally stored in a file alias which is stored in SQLite as a BLOB. I don't see a chance to create/update such an alias
Any idea how I can control where images are stored? Should I use another mechanism to import images from the iPhone instead of importing directly into the media library?

Answer 1

in a useful location on my drive based on events (e.g. Pictures/Christmas 2013/IMG_123.JPG) which enables me to use file-based services like dropbox
Do you want to store the original image files in a synced folder like your dropbox folder? Then you are risking to breaking the connection between your original image files and the versions in your iPhoto library.
Image files managed by iPhoto are best left alone. iPhoto offers many safe ways to access the photos, and probably can what you want be done, by using iPhoto's interface. What yo not can do in iPhoto is syncing the library to other macs.
Any idea how I can control where images are stored? Should I use another mechanism to import images from the iPhone instead of importing directly into the media library?
The only way to control where images are stored, is to avoid importing them in the first place. If you disable "Copy items to the iPhoto Library". Then your image files wil remain exactly where they are. But this method is not recommended, because it is a disaster waiting to happen. Images imported this way cannot be rlocated to another drive, if you are running out of space, they are difficult to restore from backup, and they are not well protected and may be accidentally moved or deleted.  If you need a photo library that supports this kind of staorage better, upgrade to Aperture.