Accessing iphoto on my external hard drive

I just backed up my computer to a WD My Book for Mac.  I am trying to verify specifcally that all of my iPhoto library has been successfully backed up before deleting anything but when i try and open it, its says I can't because it's in time machine.  When I open time machine and try to access iPhoto, it won't let me open it either.  My computers HD is almost full so I must remove photos from my computer.  I am a photographer and occasionally need to access old clients photo sessions.  Please let me know how I am able to access the photos on my external HD.   Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

See my answer in your other thread:
Re: accessing iPhoto on an external hard drive
It would be easier to relocate the complete iPhoto library to an external drive with a fast connection - Thunderbolt or USB3, and then work with iPhoto from that drive. Simply drag the library to that drive. This way you do not need to split up your iPhoto library and keep partial libraries in a different location. This can get messy, if you have duplicates in the partial libraries.  And it is more difficult to search  for photos, if you have several libraries, because you only can have one open at a time.
Any drive you are using with iPhoto needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled), see:    Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture     (this document applies to iPhoto as well)
The problem is - you want to do two in one;  archive older photos and backup your library, using a backup.
You have to separate these two tasks and use separate drives for the backup and the archive, because a backup cannot double as an archive.  The easiest way to achieve this would be to move the complete iPhoto library to an external drive and back this drive up to your regular backup drive.

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