Can Time Machine back up an external drive separately and

Can I use Time Machine to back up an external drive, separately from the internal SSD?

If not, could you please suggest some affordable but robust software? I used Carbon Copy Cloner back in the day. Is that still a thing?

Backstory: I recently installed a NAS system. I am a photographer. I store my image files (3+ TB currently) on an external SSD. I want to back up that external to the NAS. For my system backup, I have excluded anything attached to the computer, just backing up what's on the internal SSD. I'd prefer to have my photo external as a separate backup from the internal SSD.

The NAS is an entry-level model and uses SATA drives, so it's slow... and only suited for backups. I can't work off of it. When I'm ready to upgrade, I will drop the $$$$ to get more disks in the hardware, and SSD capabilities. But this will do for now. I am not, at this time, inclined to store anything in the cloud... so I'm working through my options to apply the 3-2-1 model. And lemme tell ya, the next MBP is going to have the largest SSD. (which is a whole 'nother convo... waiting on the M5 Pro.)

Any advice will be appreciated, thanks in advance.