I have many pictures linked individually from many other sites and pages and would rather not copy them to a new albums directory but rather create or import from that folder.
Is there a way I can do this?
Yes and no. ;)
I have images all over my webserver that I've created symbolic links for into the albums directory. For example /home/someuser/public_html/CPGimages is linked into /albums/someuser. So in this manner it is possible.
If you can't create symbolic or hard links such as in the case where an image is on another webserver, then you would not be able to accomplish it.
Hope this helps,
--OmegaGOD