Back before I had a digital camera, I built my own filing and tracking system for images (mostly to keep track of multiple versions of the same original image with various edits applied). But when I got a camera and a phone-camera, I figured I'd try working with iPhoto for the ease of interface. Unfortunately, it triggers my Control Issues in a major way. What I really want is not so much a file management system, but an image indexing system that will help me track the relationships between versions and will let me tag sets of images for particular projects without having to make (and move) separate copies for each project. That part isn't so much for photos as for scanned images for research purposes.