Is there a way to use spare space on Airport Time Capsule as normal external hard drive?

A friend uses a hard drive with Time Machine for backup, but also has need for an external hard drive to hold a large number of photos that are filling up her computer's hard drive.  Hers isn't an Airport Time Capsule but I have one that is.  So that raised a two part question:
1. Can her external drive used with Time Machine somehow also be used to store many of her photos (sort of a second iPhoto library) to let her to offload them?
2. Can an Airport Time Capsule be used that way? (Mine is 2 TB but my hard drive is 500 GB.)
Just curious.  Thanks.

Can her external drive used with Time Machine somehow also be used to store many of her photos (sort of a second iPhoto library) to let her to offload them?
Not sure if I understand.
To keep things simple, let's just say she has an image library on her Mac it might be iPhoto or another library.
Time Machine is backing up the image library to the external hard drive. So, the "original" version of the image library is on her Mac, and Time Machine is making a backup copy on the external hard drive.
If you move the image library to the external drive....Time Machine has nothing to back up....and the only copy of the image library will be on the external hard drive.
If the external drive has a problem.....she has lost all of her images since there are no other copies of the image library on another drive.
Is this what you are asking about?  Do you see the danger here?
Can an Airport Time Capsule be used that way? (Mine is 2 TB but my hard drive is 500 GB.)
Yes it could, but the same dangers would apply.
Or, maybe I am not understanding what you are asking?

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    Store files on the TC.
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
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    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32           it adds network drives.
    5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

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    Store files on the TC.
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
    3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.
    4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
    5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

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