Here is a really neat method to gain access to the photos in your iPhoto Library, without having to open iPhoto.

With this simple one step Automator action, you can search for photos right from the Finder. You can even drag-n-drop a full-size photo directly to your desktop.

View the instructional video.

Here’s how to get it set up.

Create an Automator Action

Open Automator, found in your Applications folder. If the “Select a starting point…” windows shows up, just select “Custom” and click the Open button.

Now, in the far left column of items, select “Photos”. Then in the next column, select “Ask for photos”, and drag it to the blank area on the right. The window should now look like this:

Now, save this Automator action as a Finder plug by choosing “Save as Plug-in…” from the File menu. Give it a memorable name such as “Browse Photos”, make sure it’s set for Finder in the drop-down menu, and hit the Save button.

That’s all there is to setting it up. Now you can quit Automator and try out your new plug-in in the Finder. Go to your desktop and right-click (or control-click with a single button mouse), and go to More > Automator > Browse Photos.

An iPhoto-like browser window opens up, right on your desktop! You can resize the window to as big as you like. As you can see, the browser is very similar to iPhoto, complete with all your events and albums. There’s even a search bar to quickly find the photo you want. When you’ve located your pics, just drag-n-drop them to the desktop.

When you’re finished browsing your photos, just click either button at the bottom of the browser. Since you had only one step in Automator, the window will simply close.

That’s it! Try it out and let me know what you think!