Moving photos out/uploading outside of iPhoto?

I have a MacBook and have learned to really hate iPhoto.

I can't stand its folder organization, and recently it completely renamed and trashed hundreds of photos, forcing me to pay $80 to download a file salvage program just to get them back.

I'm looking into alternatives to the program, but in the meantime I really want to make copies of my photos for storage. I don't want to have to deal with sorting through all of the iPhoto folders, I just want my photos, period.

Is there an easy way to get them out of that program and save them in normal photos on the HD? And is there a way to upload my photos to my computer without using iPhoto at all?