I swear I am so stuck…can you help this newbie? Uploading pics….

I hate to sound so green but I was using Blogger and I loved that in Blogger I could upload a photo, choose the placement and boom, there it was, all nicely aligned. In WordPress, I choose upload, and (assuming my pic was small enuf), it actually uploads, then I right click on the pic, go to properties, get the link. Now I click on the Add Image icon, paste the link, choose my placement and then click on ok. Now my picture is there but is the size of the entire screen so I have to find the corner and drag the picture to the proper size. The picture ends up, (duh) quite distorted. Then when I view the posting, the words are too close the pic. I just want simplicity but I want to use WordPress because I think it is so cool! Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this easier on myself?