Still Frustrated
You have iPhoto for editing photos. As for reducing the file size of a PDF, this can easily be done with Preview.
Preview>File>Export>Format

DF>Quartz Filter:Reduce File Size.
Hopefully this answer a few of your questions.
Hey! Thank you for your help.
However, I still persist with "Why did Apple do this?"
I really dislike iPhoto. I never know what it's going to do next. My feeling is I'd have to take a class or a lot of reading to learn how to use it. I have a friend who did take a class on iPhoto, and she's still confused. I use Pixelmator, but Preview used to be such a nice quick fix.
With Preview you used to go to Tools>Adjust Size. Fairly straight forward, right? Why has this option been eliminated and put under "Export" and an obscure name of "Quartz Filter" which sounds like some strange effect I would never want. Why has the option to choose the size of file been taken away? Why did the "Save As" option get taken away?
Why don't software programmers look over the shoulder of naive users like me, so they start to understand the frustrations of average users? They don't even fix a stupid long standing problem like having the shortcut key symbols in their menus not match the symbols actually on a keyboard. What key is a backward slash with a superscript minus sign or a clock with one hand pointing at 10 o'clock?
Take away: Update infrequently, but when you do, brace yourself for a lot of frustration. I'm on the edge of going back to Snow Leopard.