Sessions to password protect directory?

Good day to all! Before, I was able to password protect html and php files via a username and passowrd script which used sessions. Now, I need to password protect a folder (via .htaccess) that has images (for a family album thing). Can this be done via sessions (or even cookies)? I don't want to authenticate the user via forms and not via the pop-up that a browser presents when using an .htaccess file. Any scripts that already do this (password protect a directory)? Thanks for all your help. - Kyutums