Backing up iPhoto pictures and folders from the command-line
Your whole iPhoto library is stored in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library. If you look at it in the Finder it appears as a single file but it's actually a package (aka directory structure). So in order to back it up over ssh/scp you can use one of


scp -r ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library user@remote_host:
rsync -a -e ssh ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library remote_host: