I was wondering if there is a way to make a UIImagePickerController use a collection of images that you specify (in other words I make 10 photos of doorbells and make the UIImagePickerController show me those photos and let the user select one).
In other words, a custom photo gallery is where I'm heading. Is there a way that I can do this?
No, but the Three20 framework (used by the Facebook app) contains an open source implementation that you can use in your own application. It does exactly what you want (and more).
Check out http://github.com/facebook/three20/
As St3fan already mentioned, you can't use the UIImagePickerController for your own images.
Instead, why don't you try to use the JPImagePickerController which is developed by Jeena Paradies.
This class is a UIImagePickerController clone and allows you to use external images both your own local images or images on the web.
In fact, Three20 framework is more powerful, but JPImagePickerController is simpler and easier to use.
Check out http://github.com/jeena/JPImagePickerController