Trouble transferring photos from PC to iPad
On a Windows PC the iOS device may show up as a mountable volume. If you open Windows Explorer is your iPad there?

If so open it and look for a folder called Pictures (or similar, sorry it's been a while). If so you can just drag your pictures into that folder.

Granted iTunes is a beast but it makes transferring things between a computer and an iOS device so much easier. Is there a specific problem you are having with iTunes or do you just hate it because it's a bloated pile of inefficient code?