accessing photos from camera through usb

Adding to markwmsn's suggestions:

My camera has an SD Card that stores the pictures and can be removed. I bought (from Amazon) an SD Card reader that plugs into my MacAir. Some cameras don't have the SD Cards, and they require you to connect a cable from your camera to the computer. Which do you have? SD Cards are easy, because they're all the same. Plugging in to the camera usually works, but, different camera makers like to be different, sometimes plugging in is problematic.

As markwmsn said, when you plug in either the camera cable or an SD Card and the computer recognizes pictures, there are choices about what to do. The Photos can be set to automatically open when it sees new pictures. If open Photos, then the camera or card may show up in the sidebar. An SD card may show up as a disk on the Finder Sidebar. Sometimes we use the app Image Capture in the Applications folder to collect images. Sometimes people use the app that comes with the camera, but often those are not well written or friendly to use.

Let us know what you've got and what you need...

Or maybe you bought the camera used and don't have instructions or an app? (I bought my first Nikkormat at a pawn shop.) In that case, plug the camera in and try using the app Image Capture from your Applications folder to collect images from the camera, as I suggested earlier. If it sees your camera and shows you its pictures, then you can send them to a folder on your Desktop. From there you can double click on them to see them in the Preview app, or you can grab those pictures and drag them to the Photos app, if you want to use Photos to organize your pictures.

This is a kind of fluffy guide to using Photos:

Photos User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

What method are you using to import your photos? That would determine where they would be placed and how you would view them.

For example, if you are using the Photos app to import photos, the photos would be in the Photos library and visible using the Photos app.

If your camera manufacturer supplied an app to import photos, they should also supply instructions about where the app places the photos.

There are other ways and other answers.

OK, we are getting closer. You are using a USB cable. Let's hone things down further.

What's on the other end? The camera you just bought, or a card reader? I'll guess it's the camera.

What application are you using to import the photos? I'll guess it is some app supplied by the manufacturer of your camera, but you haven't told us the brand and we cannot guess what app might be supplied. On the other hand, the camera instructions may have told you to use Apple's Image Capture app.

Which is it? If it is a manufacturer app, what manufacturer and what app?

The specific app you are using would either have a default destination for the photos or would ask you to supply a destination. That destination could be almost anywhere in your home folder or in your Photos library.

Did you use a default destination or select another (where?)?

How you view the photos would depend partly on where they wound up.