Yes, familiar with Unix naming.

Currently in my setup I have this as my path:

/Users/myshortname/Pictures/iPhoto Library/

but when I try to use it I get this message:

Can't access to the iPhoto library data file. Possible causes:

The absolute path you set in the library configuration is wrong
OS Permissions settings prevents Apache (www) to reach some of your files, altough changeperm tried to set them properly
Please correct this issue to keep going...

Filevault is probably the issue - it keeps your home folder in an encrypted disk image on the drive, and mounts it when that user logs in. Good tech info is at:

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/12/19/filevault.html