Macbook Air iPhoto does not see albums on the iPad
You could use a 3rd-party app such as the free WiFi Photo Transfer to access all those pictures on your MacBook Air. It uses a web browser to access the photos, so you don't have to install any software on the MacBook Air or deal with syncing.

The whole process is easy:


Launch the app on the iPhone or iPad
On your computer, you type in the address it tells you to in a browser.
You can then choose to either download a specific picture or entire albums.




Another benefit is that none of the pictures are sent to the Internet.