I do some professional photography, but also love it as a hobby and often use my iPhone 4 to grab the immediate. I'm using ProCamera to expand the ability to control camera options. But, I have to say, I'm overwhelmed by iPhoto and even Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. They are TOO user friendly.
iPhoto seems to take over all photos, sorting, naming, storing automatically. I have struggled with it, mainly to eliminate it... but it just won't die, especially as the MBP has it as a default photo handler.
I have a PC for my graphics work, using Creative Suite 3 which includes Photoshop, InDesign, etc. It's so simple - drag/drop photos into your own folders, pull them out to edit, store them back in folders.
There must be something I'm missing with iPhoto and Lightroom. I've even purchased Photoshop Elements, just so there is compatibility between my PC and MBP. Not much help to OP, but maybe someone has a handle on this - other than spending $1k to buy a Mac version of Creative Suite.