Ipad without ITunes

Katykat

I want to transfer my Ipad photos to my MacBook without using ITunes. I think I would know how to drag and drop but when I connect Ipad to Mac, unless I click on " automatically connect to ITunes" then I can't see my Ipad anywhere on the Mac. I have unchecked the "automatically connect to Itunes, but I then I have to go into Itunes to eject the Ipad safely. I have nothing against Itunes for organising music but I just don't like it for photos. So, when I connect my Ipad, where do I look on my Mac to access the photos on the Ipad. Then I can just drag and drop them into my pictures application? And when that's done, can I eject the Ipad without going into iTunes.

InsideInsurance

iPhoto & Aperture can manage the photos directly with an iPad/Pod/Phone and therefore I assume there are other photo management applications that can do the same.

With Windows there are applications for accessing information on an iDevice directly without the need for iTunes and so it would be logical that the same applies for Mac OS X but as I use Aperture for my photo management its not something I've looked into