El Capitan and IPhoto??

iPhoto was replaced by Photos.

If that is insufficient, try this: Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store

What you are missing is that Apple announced about a year ago that iPhoto was going to be phased out and replaced by Photos.

First, a comment about the photos you lost from iPhoto. If you had done all the incremental updates of OS X and iPhoto, you would have had iPhoto 9.6.1 when Photos was introduced perhaps seven months ago with OS X 10.10.2 (or OS X 10.10.3). At that time, if you opened the Photos app, it would have migrated your iPhoto library into Photos.

Mikjr wrote:

... what next!?!?

Technology changes. If you have been doing photography-related business for a while, you've certainly seen it. For example, digital photography has taken over what used to be film-based photography.

What is next? Well, my guess is your Mac will become obsolete and need replacement in the not-too-distant future. But whatever it is, technology will continue to evolve.

Open Photos. Click Photos > Preferences > General from Photos' menu. The top line says where they are.

UPDATE - Sorry, that is where they would migrate to. That is not what you asked. You may still have a folder called Pictures > iPhoto Library.

Mikjr wrote:

I bought my MAC for my business because I was told they were the best at what they did... Photo enhancing, movie making, music production. Little by little, they have pretty much destroyed the reason I bought a MAC!

So now I have to purchase a new program to enhance photos? what next!?!?

I'm guessing you still haven't found the Edit button:

Which shows these:

They are much more advanced than what iPhoto had, and they are extensible. Companies can produce plug-ins to add to the enhancements already available.

Did any of them migrate?

Use the edit feature in Photos.

You can import your iPhotoLibrary to Photos,by pressing the Option key whilst starting the Photos app, you should get a dialogue asking you to

Choose Library.

If you want iPhoto back, follow the link below.

App store shows update for iPhoto ver. 9.6.1, but it is unavailable

Good Luck.

I also do not like the new Photo program. Actually, I hate it!

1. When my photos were imported into the El Capitan's Photo, they appeared by dates under the heading "Photos". The first entry in this new Photos system is Jan 1, 2003. This Jan 1, 2003, entry contains photos of my three-year-old granddaughter who wasn't born until 2009 and pictures of another grandchild playing soccer outside in the summer! Whaaaat? I have no idea how tEl Capitan transferred & organized my pictures.

2. With iPhoto I was able to head each entry of photos using TEXT. I gave every batch of pictures an identifying heading followed by the date.

Thus, I could "name" each group of photos, like "Little Miss Chicken Pox" which contained pics of that granddaughter when she was ill.

Now I have to scroll down through all those dated lines of photos to find this event. I can't remember events by dates!

3. With iPhoto I could put text underneath every photo. Basically, my pictures in iPhotos became diary entries.

4. With iPhoto I could easily move photos from their original position into different areas. That made it very easy when I gathered photographs to make a book for this same grandchild. These photos all went into a single heading which was the name of her story... "The Little Chestnut."

I used to have Mavericks, an older iOS, that worked with iPhoto. I never updated for Yosemite. Why, oh why did I update to El Capitan?

I am not interested in sharing my photos across multiple Apple platforms. I'm not interested in substantial editing or things to do with movies. I'm just a grandmother who wants to store memories of my family in a way that's meaningful to me.

Also.... what's with those lines of tiny photos... what a silly feature!