Can I back up my photos to an external drive?
Currently, All my photos are on iCloud storage for a monthly fee. Can I also back up photos on external storage? If so, can I just back up my photos on my device?
iPhone SE, iOS 16
One problem with using iCloud Photos is, that your regular iCloud backup of your iPhone will no longer include the photos (What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support). So you definitely need to make a separate backup.
Do you have a computer as well? With a computer you can backup your iCloud data as described here: Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support
If you have no computer, you could save your photos on your device by sharing them to Files.