Importing photos without using the OS X Photos app

Solution 1:

Use Image Capture, in the Applications folder - which is the importer 'behind' Photos.app anyway.

You can set it to auto-launch any capable app, including itself [or do nothing] & set exactly where your imports should be saved. You can also dictate whether it should auto-delete from the camera afterwards, or alternatively you can manually delete any selected pictures.

enter image description here