The Imagefield module is a CCK field specifically for image files. You can upload your image right to the node and get it to display within your node, and even a View. When using the Imagecache module and Views combined, you can create your own CCK image gallery. You can also create with categories with the core Taxonomy module, and even thumbnails for your images if you use the Thickbox module.

Imagefield is being added to Drupal 7 core!

The CCK module is another must have Drupal module. It is used to create fields within your content page for specific content to be displayed within the node, or other nodes. It also interacts with many other modules and is one of the building blocks of a solid Drupal website. There are many sub-modules for the Content Construction Kit, and unfortunately, they are all separate modules.

Part of CCK is moving into Drupal 7 core and is known as Fields in Core.