how do I transfer camera photos to photos on mac into a separate album?

When the Photos app brings up the Import window after you connect your camera to your Mac there is an Album menu in the middle of the top frame of the window where you can either import the photos into a new album, none or one of the existing albums:

vEDSzebra wrote:

How to transfer camera photos to mac photos app into a separate album?

One way would be to import the pictures into Photos and then, in Photos, go to Imports, select all the pictures you just imported, and choose "File>New Album with Selection."