[NextGen Gallery] .htaccess authentication issues

I am using NextGen Gallery for hosting a web site which allows users to pay for subscriptions to gain access to the galleries, it works well apart from one little problem.

my images are uploaded in /wp-content/gallery/images1 – which is protected using .htaccess

Now everytime I load the galleries after I have been authenticated the wordpress login it asks for the htaccess username and password, is there anyway I can exclude the NextGen Gallery script from needed authentication?

or is there any other way I prevent images being viewed directly?