Leonie, So sorry for the long delay after your helpful comments about my 'lost', more likely submerged photos from my Japan trip that I worked so hard on last summer. I am almost completely convinced that my smart album disappeared because I upgraded to the latest 9.6 version of iPhoto in October and if that didn't do it, I think I upgraded to a more recent program just before Yosemite also about the same time. Since your last comments I have been too busy with other things to try and resolve the problem. I did try to play with the Time Machine in hope of recovering the images, but was unsuccessful. Just now I saw an add for Mac's new photo app that looks quite cool and am wondering if I upgraded on this app, that my organised series would reappear. I do still have all the photos on the chip, but am trying to avoid redoing all the tedious work again. Any suggestions?