use BLOBS or use pointers to files on the filesystem?

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Hi

I'm kind of a database newbie in general, so be nice to me if this
is a bonehead question. I am building a java servlet based web
application to manage photos and images. My first thougth has been
to store the images as BLOBs in the database, but I read one user say
that you're better off not using BLOBs. Instead, he says, store your
large data objects as files on the filesystem, and just use the
database to store the path to the file and any file-related meta
data.

I wasn't sure what to think of this, so I was hoping to get some
other ideas and opinions. I expect to accumulate 1-2 gigs of new
data per year, max, with average image size being 700k.

Also, if I've missed any obvious documentation on this issue please
feel free to send it my way.

Thanks!

Travis

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