Photos stuck on iPhone, but are not in photos app on mac

As the title states, I have photos that I cannot find in my photos app on OS X but are stuck on my iPhone. I know that you can't just delete photos from your iOS device that have been added to your photo library through syncing, but my problem is that the photos that were taken with my phone are nowhere to be found on my mac in the photos app. I've searched through my pictures on my mac numerous times and have not been able to locate them, though they should be with the pictures I know I took before and after the pictures in question. I've un-synced the photos in iTunes and then re-synced them and nothing has worked. I am also not using iCloud photo library.