Q: can not transfer pictures from external hard drive from old mac to new

I backed up my old mac book pro with a mac external hard drive using time machine because someone at Geek Squad said it would work. I tried to get documents off, which worked, but when I try to open photos or iPhoto library it says that its backed up by time machine and I can't retrieve them. What should I do? Also, my old mac wasn't updated consistently if that makes a difference.